Community Health Assessment & Community Health Improvement Planning
A community health assessment, also known as community health needs assessment, refers to a state, tribal, local, or territorial health assessment that identifies key health needs and issues through systematic, comprehensive data collection and analysis. A community health improvement plan is a long-term, systematic effort to address public health problems based on the results of community health assessment activities and the community health improvement process.
A community health assessment gives organizations comprehensive information about the community’s current health status, needs, and issues. In turn, this information can help with developing a community health improvement plan by justifying how and where resources should be allocated to best meet community needs.
Models for community health improvement describe a continuous cycle of community health improvement with steps like these:
- Assess Needs & Resources
- Focus on What’s Important
- Choose Effective Policies and Programs
- Act on What’s Important
- Evaluate Actions
