Community Healthcare Needs Assessment

QUESTION

Designing a community program in Human Services begins by completing a needs assessment. The purpose of the needs assessment is to see what programs or services are already being offered in the community and where there are possible gaps. This week you will submit a workplace or community needs assessment. If you are currently not working in a Human Services organization, begin by assessing what services are in your community. You can plan a program based on the information you collect and what you feel your community needs. If you are working in a Human Services organization and want to create a program for it, begin with an assessment of the organization’s existing programs and plan your program from there. Your needs assessment should be formatted in an outline and include the following information:

1. Community name
2. Description of the community, including statistical information and demographics about the community (for examples, population, age, race, gender, income, education, housing, poverty, etc.)In your description, include the possible needs of this population.
3. Community needs that are currently being met and how (specific agencies or programs)To discuss this, consider the various populations that are found within a community that potentially could seek Human Services assistance (for example, families, elderly, youth, mentally ill, substance abusers, pregnant teens, victims of domestic violence, unemployed). Then, consider the services available to these populations.
4. Community needs that were identified as not being met or populations not servedTo discuss this, consider populations that may be underrepresented or that are not being served as well as they could be. For example, perhaps a program exists but clients can’t easily get to it.
5. Choose and identify one of the unmet needs to research in order to create a program for your project. (You will use this research to help you complete next week’s course project assignment, program design.)

Completed outlines should be 1-2 pages in length. Include any resource information in APA format.

ANSWER

Community Healthcare Needs Assessment

Summary

This paper will be an assessment of the healthcare needs of Navajo County residents. The final report of the assessment is expected to provide a compilation of all the findings of the various research components, and the details of each research component will be provided separately. This assessment will be an in-depth look at the Navajo county community, and the findings will go a long way in providing recommendations to local hospitals and healthcare providers on how best to meet the needs of the community.

Community Profile

The Navajo County of Arizona has a population of approximately 100,000 residents (Data Access and Dissemination Systems (DADS), 2010). The community is served by a number of healthcare organizations whose goal is to provide the community with quality healthcare. Approximately thirty percent of the total population of the county lives below the poverty line, with the county having high poverty rates, high crime rates, and a high rate of unemployment compared to its surrounding counties. The population is largely composed of young people between the age of 18 and 40, with a median age of 35 (Data Access and Dissemination Systems (DADS), 2010).

Components of the Needs Assessment

The healthcare needs assessment will attempt to identify the various healthcare needs that are currently being met by the healthcare facilities in Navajo County and the needs that have not yet been met. Various quantitative and qualitative research methods will be implemented in the collection of relevant data, including a secondary statistical data profile of the county, a survey conducted via telephone with 200 community residents, key informant interviews with 100 stakeholders in the community, and a few focus group discussions with residents.

Community Needs Being Met

• Access to healthcare
• Access to counseling services

Community Needs not being Met

• Access to mental healthcare
• Healthcare for chronic health conditions and drug abuse

Conclusion

For this assignment, the community need of access to mental healthcare will be discussed in detail, and recommendations provided on how the need can be met by the various organizations that provide human services in the Navajo community.

References

Data Access and Dissemination Systems (DADS). (2010, October 05). American FactFinder. Retrieved May 24, 2019, from https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml?src=bkmk