The government of New York experiences a rising demand for healthcare, limited resources, and inequalities in health, particularly in Jamaica. Community health needs assessment plays a crucial role in enabling practitioners and policy makers to identify the people in need (Israel, et al, 1998, 298). They then focus on ensuring that health care resources are used to maximize health improvement in the assessed societies. The previous comprehensive community assessment included the community profile with an intention to identify the primary care needs. The earlier assessment gathered and analyzed data to identify all the health needs of Jamaica and focused on the essential needs. The purpose of comprehensive community assessment was to outline the critical examination of the implications for healthcare practice. The comprehensive community assessment in Jamaica will help to understand the policies and changes that the government has put in place to reduce health inequalities.
The comprehensive community assessment facilitates the identification and prioritization of needs. Following the partner based data collection and review process, Queens Department of community health services and the senior management convened to identify and prioritize Jamaica health needs. The assessment clustered the data based on affinity. For instance, the assessment classified economic instability, education, social and community context and healthcare facilities under the broad rubric under environmental determinants health determinants. The Queens Health Department team reviewed the clusters within the framework of the size of the population and how they were trending. Consequently, the outcome was a combined list of health needs. The team resolved that the Jamaica’s populace should check on health behaviors such as stopping smoking and improving security.
The assessment team at Queens Department decided to deal with health disparities to attain healthy people by 2020. The evaluation identified some of the significant health disparities such as racism, gender bias, and physical disability, which affect hinders a healthy community in Jamaica. The community focuses on eliminating racism in Jamaica to ensure that all citizens have equal privileges such as access to proper housing, and to make sure that the minorities also have access to healthy neighborhoods. The community can work hard to achieve a healthy society by 2020 by ensuring that the physically disabled have access to clean water and proper air supply. Equally, the community can offer equal opportunities so that everyone can afford proper nutrition resulting to a healthy population.
The assessment played a significant on informing about Jamaica community by identifying the causes of an unhealthy community. The evaluation conducted by the Queens department of health identified the community health problems like lack of knowledge on the effects of smoking. Also, the assessment outlined the consequences of insecurity, poor living standards and racial discrimination as some of the practices that lead to unhealthy people. It is important to understand the community and its concerns to address the community health concerns. Therefore, this assessment enlightens the medical practitioners of Queens, Jamaica on various issues they need to address. Besides, the healthcare professionals can seek government intervention to ensure that the community achieves its objective of a healthy people by 2020.
Conducting comprehensive community assessment is critical because it helps the healthcare practitioners to identify the major health concerns. The health professionals can then address the main problems that contribute to unhealthy society (Van and Rosser, 2004). Equally, the government can intervene and put measures such as addressing racial discrimination, insecurity and creating equal opportunities for the entire populace. The department of health of Queens can collaborate with the government to build awareness on the impacts of smoking. In doing so, the community can achieve its goal of having a healthy Jamaica by 2020.
- Israel, B. A., Schulz, A. J., Parker, E. A., & Becker, A. B. (1998). Review of community-based research: assessing partnership approaches to improve public health. Annual review of public health, 19(1), 173-202.
- Van Weel, C., & Rosser, W. W. (2004). Improving health care globally: a critical review of the necessity of family medicine research and recommendations to build research capacity. The Annals of Family Medicine, 2(suppl 2), S5-S16.