Community Needs Assessment
Introduction
Identifying home and community care priorities and needs
through a community needs assessment is an important
activity that needs to be conducted at the beginning of
program development. Whereas word-of-mouth can be helpful
for getting the idea for the program going, a needs
assessment study provides a comprehensive and
unbiased documentation of the needs in the whole
community.
As an example, in general conversation people may talk a lot
about the need for homemaking services but never mention the
problems that so many Elders may have in stabilizing their
diabetes. The need for an emphasis and focus on diabetes
issues and other needs in your Home and Community Care
Program may only become evident through a more thorough
study.
This Handbook provides a step by step approach to designing
and carrying out a community needs assessment. Sample data
collection tools are included as appendices to the Handbook
and can be used as is or adapted to meet the specific needs of
your community.
The data collection tools were tested by the sites participating
in the Health Transition Fund (HTF) Project on First Nations and
Inuit Home Care and were subsequently modified and refined
based on their feedback.
Many of the lessons learned from the HTF Project are also
reflected in the Handbook as ideas and suggestions which may
benefit other First Nations and Inuit communities. As an
example, the pilot sites have learned of the importance of
community involvement and input into the planning and
development of a new program, and the need for good
communication throughout all phases of the process. As one
site explained "without key support in the community, often
best laid plans fail".
Please note that information gathered in the needs assessment
process will remain with the community. A summary of the
findings, however, will be submitted to the review structure in
your region in conjunction with your service delivery plan.
In order to assist in developing a common understanding of
terms used throughout the Handbook, a Glossary of Terms is
included in the Planning Resource Kit.
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