Understanding Your Community And Assessing Your Community Health

Understanding Your Community And Assessing Your Community Health Assets & Needs Folakemi T. Odedina, Ph. D Professor, College of Pharmacy Director, UFPDC Community Outreach & Minority Affairs University of Florida 1

Financial Disclosure • NONE 2

Acknowledgement • Funding Support provided by: • University of Florida • College of Pharmacy • Shands Cancer Center • Office of the Vice President of Research 3

Learning Objectives • Understand community health assessment. • Understand the action steps necessary for community health assessment and evaluation. 4

Required Reading Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Community Health Assessment and Group Evaluation (CHANGE) Action Guide: Building a Foundation of Knowledge to Prioritize Community Needs. Atlanta: U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010. http: //www. cdc. gov/health ycommunitiesprogram/tool s/change/pdf/changeaction guide. pdf 5

CHA Defined • A continuous process involving data collection, analyses, interpretation and dissemination of community health status, assets, needs, and gaps. 6

Guide tool to help: • Engage residents to address community health. • Determine health and disease patterns, pathways, causes and consequences. • Establish the use of, access to, and management of health resources within the community. • Develop community-tailored interventions to improve community health. • Determine process and outcome benchmarks to assess the effectiveness of communitybased interventions in improving health or reducing disease burden. 7

Action Steps 8

Action Steps 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Assemble the Community Team Develop Team Strategy Review Community Sectors Gather Data Review Data Gathered Enter Data Review Consolidated Data Build the Community Action Plan 9

Action Step 1 Assemble the Community Team • Define “the community”. • Assemble a team of 10 -12 representing diverse key stakeholders within the community. • Define purpose and clarify vision. • Develop rules, roles, procedures, and responsibilities. • Raise awareness about the team. • Generate funds to support the team. • Assign tasks to each member based on skills and available resources. 10

Action Step 2 Develop Team Strategy • Team members work together to develop a consensus on strategy for CHA. • Team may decide to work as a group or create sub-groups that will report back to the group. 11

Action Step 3 Confirm assessment needs for all community sectors • Five community sectors 1. Community-At-Large 2. Community Institutions/Organizations 3. Health Care 4. School 5. Work Site 12

1. Community-At-Large Community-wide efforts that impact the social and built environments, such as food access, walkability or bikeability, tobacco-free policies, and personal safety. • Demographic – Demographics of people within the community. • Physical Activity – To what extent does the community maintain parks. • Nutrition – To what extent does the community encourage community gardening. • Tobacco – To what extent does the community institute a smoke -free policy. • Chronic Disease Management – To what extent does the community provide emergency medical care. • Leadership – To what extent does the community participate in the public policy process. 13

2. Community Institution/Organization (CIO) Entities within the community that provide a broad range of human services and access to facilities, such as faith -based organizations, senior centers, wellness organizations, and colleges and universities. • Demographic – Demographics of organization e. g. private vs public. • Physical Activity – To what extent does the COI provide a safe area. • Nutrition – To what extent does the COI institute nutritional labeling in food venues. • Tobacco – To what extent does the COI ban tobacco vending sales. • Chronic Disease Management – To what extent does the COI provide access to an onsite nurse. • Leadership – To what extent does the COI have a wellness coordinator. 14

3. Health Care facility (HCF) Places people go to receive preventive care or treatment, or emergency health care services, such as hospitals, private doctors’ offices, and community clinics. • Demographic – Demographics e. g. # of staff, # of patients. • Physical Activity – To what extent does the HCF promote stairwell use. • Nutrition – To what extent does the HCF institute healthy food purchasing for cafeteria. • Tobacco – To what extent does the HCF provide advice and counseling about tobacco use. • Chronic Disease Management – To what extent does the HCF provide cancer screening for at-risk adults. • Leadership – To what extent does the HCF provide access to medical services outside of regular working hours 15

4. School • Demographic All primary and secondary learning institutions, including public and private. – Demographics e. g. # of students, type of school. • Physical Activity – To what extent does the school implement bike ride or walk initiative. • Nutrition – To what extent does the school implement free breakfast at school. • Tobacco – To what extent does the school implement a referral system for tobacco cessation. • Chronic Disease Management – To what extent does the school provide access to chronic disease self-management education programs. • Leadership – To what extent does the school have a health promotion budget. 16

5. Work Site • Demographic Places of employment, such as private offices, restaurants, retail establishments, and government offices. – Demographics e. g. # of employees, type of work site. • Physical Activity – To what extent does the work site promote stairwell use. • Nutrition – To what extent does the work site provide refrigerator access to employees. • Tobacco – To what extent does the work site ban tobacco advertisement. • Chronic Disease Management – To what extent does the work site provide routine screening and immunizations. • Leadership – To what extent does the work site reimburse employees for wellness activities. 17

Action Step 4 Data Collection • Assessment phase • Existing data can be used if less that six months. • Data collection at all relevant sites to determine where changes are needed. • Use mixed-methods for data collection – Observation – Survey – Focus group 18

Action Steps 5 - 7 Data Review, Entry & Interpretation • Provides clear picture of: – Strengths – Weaknesses – Available resources – Areas of improvement 19

Action Step 8 Community Action Plan • Develop and organize annual SMART objectives based on the data. o Specific - Who/What? o Measurable – how much? o Achievable within a time frame and available resources. o Realistic o Time-phased, including completion time and/or when the objective will be measured. 20

Moving Forward • Start Small and Keep it Simple. • Don’t compete; Collaborate. • REMEMBER. . . • Need representation of diverse expertise on your team. • Disseminate Community Action Plan widely within the community and to all stakeholders. • Document and celebrate your successes. • Cyclical process for continuous community health improvement. 21

Remember! If the problems are in the community; The solutions are in the community 22