Needs Assessment
In order to determine whether an intervention has had an effect on your community,it is important to assess what is happening in your community before determining the appropriate intervention. While it is essential to determine the various health needs in your community, you also must take into account the social factors that influence health (e.g., gender, education, employment, housing). These social factors, commonly called social determinants of health, may have a direct or indirect impact on health. In order to identify the social determinants of health impacting health in your community of interest, we recommend that you conduct a needs assessment. |
The first step in conducting a needs assessment is to work with your partners to identify and prioritize the factors (i.e. social, behaviors, or psychological factors) of particular importance in your community. Once you have determined general areas of concern, you can begin to identify and assess specific factors. There are a variety of ways to collect data that will help you and your partners identify and prioritize the factors of most concern in your community. There are a number of ways to access data about your community. You may choose to begin by using the following resources.
- Internet (Missouri Information for Community Assessment, Kids Count)
- Local community agencies and organizations (Missouri Foundation for Health)
- State agencies and organizations (Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services)
- Community records (Missouri Birth Certificate)
- Other community or state needs assessments (Kids Count)
These resources may help you gather social indicator or behavioral factor data.
- Social indicator data: This type of data may be helpful in gaining a general knowledge about social determinants (poverty rates, education levels, income levels, etc.) rates in your community. This will help you highlight where the greatest disparities exist in your community. You can begin collecting this data at the U.S. Census.
- Behavioral factor data: This type of data may be useful to target the different racial, ethnic, social groups in your community. These groups may have various health related behaviors that lead to social health disparities. In Missouri, you may find this data on Priorities MICA. You may also search the Centers for Disease Control site Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System data.
If you are unable to find the information that you desire, you may need to consider collecting your own data. The following methods will help you begin.
- Brainstorming: This may be helpful in your initial investigation of social and behavior factors impacting the community. We recommend asking members of your partnerships, key community leaders, or members of the community to participate in this process. The following are two structured ways of performing a brainstorming session.
- Nominal group process: a structured meeting that attempts to create equal opportunity for everyone to participate. Participants are asked to take turns freely responding to specific questions about the issue of interest.
- Delphi Method: a technique that uses expert opinion to arrive at consensus about planning or problem-solving issues.
- Public Forums: Public forums are meetings open to the community and provide an opportunity for any member of the community to voice his or her concern about the issue. This method is a way to invite community members that may not be part of the brainstorming process to express felt needs or issues in the community.
- Qualitative Interviews: While this method may be more costly and time consuming, qualitative interviews may provide more in-depth information. Qualitative interviews can be conducted with individuals or groups of people
- Key informants: this approach assumes certain individuals are more knowledgeable about the community and the issue of interest. It further assumes these individuals are in a position to accurately articulate the needs of the community and assist in developing an intervention to address those needs.
- Focus Groups: are a particular type of group interview, usually conducted with 8 to 12 subjects, where discussion is “focused” on a single issue, or a well-defined, limited number of issues.
- Individual in-depth interviews: are one-on-one interviews that are similar to a conversation with a purpose – these can vary from brief, casual conversations to formal and lengthy interviews.