Assessing Needs

Objectives

• Define need and needs assessment

• Define capacity, community capacity, and capacity building

• Explain why a needs assessment is an integral part of the planning process

• Describe the steps in conducting a needs assessment

• Differentiate between primary and secondary data sources

• List the various methods for collecting data

Terminology

• Bias

• Capacity

• Capacity building

• Community capacity

• Health assessments

• Health impact assessments (HIA)

• HIPAA

• Key Informants

• Mapping

• Need

• Needs Assessment

• Opinion Leaders

• Proxy measures

• Secondary Data

• Self-assessments

• Sel-f report

• Significant others

• Quantitative data

• Qualitative data

• Capacity

• Need

• Community capacity

• Scope

• True needs

• Perceived needs

• Primary data

• Secondary data

• Tertiary data

Needs Assessment

• The process of objectively collecting data to identify, analyse, and prioritize the needs of a priority population

• Also called:

 Community health assessments

 Community analysis

 Community diagnosis

• The most crucial step in the planning process→ informs every decision

 Defines health problem(s) to address

 Set priorities for program implementation

 Establishes a baseline for evaluating program impact on the community

Needs

Does not have to be a negative situation

•Our job: Identify all needs

True/Actual (data backed)

Perceived (by the population)

Acquiring Needs Assessment Data

Common sources of primary data

Common sources of secondary data

Models/Assessments

Rationale for conducting a needs assessment

1. Logical starting place

 Have to know who, what, where, when, and why the problem exists before trying to fix

2. Provides insight to where best to allocate resources for maximum benefit

3. Apply principles of equity and social justice in practice

4. Supports ensuring the focus of resources is on the most critical health problem and not creating a distraction from the real problem

5. Identifies a community’s capacity to address a specific need

6. Supports the development of interventions to meet needs

7. Provides a reference point for comparisons for future assessments

Context for understanding

Capacity

• Resources (individual, organizational, and community) that can enable a community to act themselves

 Ex. Leadership, relationships, operations, structures, infrastructures, politics, and systems already in place

Community Capacity

• Characteristics of communities that affect their ability to identify, mobilize, and address social and public health problems

 Consider strengths that can be mobilized (put into action) to address conditions (social, economic, environmental) that affect health outcomes

Capacity Building

• Activities that enhance the resources of individuals, organizations, or communities to improve their effectiveness to act

Rationale for not conducting a needs assessment

1. Needs assessment was recently conducted

2. Employed by an organization with a specific need already known

 American Heart Association

 Real life example: Dental hygiene students mustaddress oral health

3. Funding is earmarked(designated money for a specific use, project, or recipient) for:

 a specific disease (cancer)

 health determinant (risk factor)

 a specific program/intervention (screening for cancer)

Sidenote: Grants that “earmark” funds are often referred to as a “line-item

grant” → meaningfunding is set aside for a very particular purpose with little to no flexibility in spending outside of defined line

Questions

Questions to answer before a needs assessment