Community wellness can be improved by keeping a record of the factors affecting them and implementing sustainable solutions. Community Health Assessment and Group Evaluation (CHANGE) process is a community-based resource tool for collecting data and planning for improved living. CHANGE tool aids people in guiding them through the assessment process to recognize the areas that need improvement (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2014). Recognizing the community’s pain points help in creating a relevant and sustainable solution to factors leading to chronic diseases and other risk factors.
CHANGE tool helps to assess the present environmental, social, and political risk factors to prioritize future improvement efforts. Through the CHANGE tool, a society can identify its strengths and weaknesses. In addition, people can assess their health status and disease management processes (CDC, 2014). The tool provides an opportunity for societies to work together in the recognition, assessment, and implementation of solutions to the problems affecting them. Participants can also receive feedback on the implementation process as a team.
Implementing the Community Health Process involves establishing a solid team or working with an existing team. The process may vary in different societies according to the characteristics of the community. However, the CHANGE process may take an average of 3 to 5 months for its implementation (Scott et al., 2018). The process takes place in five steps; commitment, assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation. Commitment involves getting the community to form a CHANGE process team. Where societies have already existing teams, it is advisable to use them for the process. Assessment involves establishing factors affecting them and prioritizing in order of urgency. When people’s pain points are established, the CHANGE team can plan on how to implement the solutions. During implementation, the solutions are enforced and later evaluated to assess their effectiveness. The CHANGE tool comprises a Microsoft Excel sheet that aids in data collection and analysis.
The Community Health Process differs from the Nursing Process in several ways. For instance, the nursing process comprises six steps, while the Community Health Process has five stages. Also, the nursing process is client-centered. On the other hand, the Community Health Process is centered on a large number of community members (Gold et al., 2018). In addition, the Community Heath Process involves more than three parties for its implementation, while the nursing process has only two participants, the nurse, and the patient. Conversely, the two processes share some similarities in that they are goal-oriented, systematic, and aim at providing humanistic care.
Data is collected in social places such as government offices, healthcare facilities, schools, community institutions or organizations, and the community at large. The social places where data is collected are known as the five sectors of the CHANGE tool (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2014). For each of the sectors, questions about the health of the community, nutrition, chronic disease management programs, physical activities, overweight and obesity, and political systems are asked. The five sectors of the CHANGE process are critical as they provide meeting points for members of the community. In the five sectors, essential discussions can take place effectively and the community’s pain points identified with ease. Also, people can air their views on the sustainable solutions in the five sectors and work together to implement them.
In conclusion, the Community Health Assessment and Group Evaluation process (CHANGE) is a data collection and resource tool that help communities work together in the assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation stages of problems affecting them. The Community Health Process is similar to the nursing practices in that they both are projected toward providing humanistic care. Also, the CHANGE process takes place in five sectors; community at large, community institutions, healthcare facilities, and schools. Social places are essential as they allow people to work collectively in the process.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC ) (2014). Community health assessment and group evaluation (change) tool | DNPAO | CDC. Web.
Gold, R., Bunce, A., Cowburn, S., Dambrun, K., Dearing, M., Middendorf, M. & Cottrell, E. (2018). Adoption of social determinants of health EHR tools by community health centers. The Annals of Family Medicine, 16(5), 399-407. Web.
Scott, K., Beckham, S. W., Gross, M., Pariyo, G., Rao, K. D., Cometto, G., & Perry, H. B. (2018). What do we know about community-based health worker programs? A systematic review of existing reviews on community health workers. Human resources for health, 16(1), 1-17. Web.