Paper Topic:

1. Summarize the principles and methods of health needs assessment which are useful for a health promoting intervention strategy. 2. Give a critical assessment of the participatory approach to health needs assessment by identifying the various strengths,

HEALTH NEEDS ASSESSMENT

1 . Health needs assessment pertains to the systematic approach of reviewing the current healthcare issues of a certain population and identifying actions that would address problems and ultimately improve the healthcare system (Peberdy , 1997 . The actions that are performed to improve the healthcare system are regarded as healthcare intervention strategies . There are currently five general steps that are involved in the assessment of the health needs of a community or population (Peckham and Spanton , 1994

The first step involves the assembly of a several professionals who are

capable of assessing the current healthcare system of the community This group of professionals may play a major role in determining whether the population receives sufficient healthcare services to maintain a healthy community . The next step in the assessment is to identify the current needs of the population based on the actual common illnesses that are reported for that locality (Stevens and Rafferty , 1997 . For example , if there are a growing number of cases of cardiovascular diseases in the population , then there is a need to increase cardiovascular services in the hospital . The third step involves putting the plan into action and this is mainly performed by the action preparation into the changes or additional services that will be provided to the population

The fourth step involves the planning of the healthcare services that will be changed in the locality . This step also involves the identification of method of assessing whether the actual change has improved the health and well-being...

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