Introduction
In the past, the community has been understood as people sharing the same geographical area. However, in public health, the term can mean persons who have something in common like a school, hospital, water sources, or any other amenity. It can refer to individuals with the same religious, ethnic, racial, and sexual orientation ties. Our community is a rural area of Alabama, dominated by African Americans and the Non-Hispanic whites. The area has high mountainous ridges, valleys, and the coastal line (Selleck et al., 2018). It is well supplied by roads, rails, and airports without which they would function.
The healthcare facilities are not as many as compared to the urban areas. The community is densely populated, and the housing constitutes mainly substandard buildings and slum-like settlements. The common language is English, with less than 10% being non-speaking people (Selleck et al., 2018). Most of the population are females aged between 18 and 65 years. The large populace has received primary education, and there are few schools compared to the urban areas. The community leaders are elected, and since the majority are whites, they practice the whites’ culture.
Creation of the Focus Groups and Ensuring that All Ages are Represented
The purpose of the focus groups is to understand more about the society and the public’s health priority needs. For the effectiveness of these teams, they should constitute eight and twelve individuals. Since the clinic acts to solve people’s health needs, I will look at the record book of the most common illness or problem that necessitated the visit. The next step is to invite all the individuals that visited the clinic and add the public healthcare workers and the administrators or leaders. The community leaders understand the residents better and also know the pressing requirements.
The caregivers interact with most residents with health issues, and they can help understand the everyday needs that cause disease in the region (Choo et al., 2018). I will also ensure all the expanses of the community are well represented in each group. If only people from a specific area utilize the clinic, then the leaders would be tasked to select members in the other parts. My next move would be to ensure all age groups are represented by classifying the age as a youth (20-28 years, middle age (28-54), the senior (above 54 years). Each group will contain equal numbers of the three brackets.
Key Questions and How they Determine the Needs of the Community
Some of the critical questions to be asked in the focus discussions include the clinic helping in treating common illnesses in the community. How are the services at the clinic? Are there services required by the community but not offered in the clinic? If Yes, which services? How are the costs of the services at the clinic? How is the reception and handling of the clients at the hospital? On average, what is the time taken to get services at the facility? Does each household have a source of water? Where does the water come from?
What is the current source of drinking water? Where does water for other domestic activities come from? How do the community members ensure that the water is safe for drinking? Is the current water source reliable and adequate for all the community members? Does everyone have access to water and hygiene, and sanitation facilities in the community? How are household wastes disposed of? How is the situation of the toilets used in the amenities such as school and churches? What are the main problems faced in the utilization of water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities? What is the most common illness that affects the community? The above questions target the actual needs of the community. The critical areas of the need assessment include water, sanitation, and hygiene and how the community utilizes the clinic’s services. (Selleck et al., 2018). Therefore, this forum will better understand the community’s needs by designing the questions to target the key areas.
References
Cho, S., Lee, H., Yoon, S., Kim, Y., Levin, P. F., & Kim, E. (2018). Community health needs assessment: A nurses’ global health project in Vietnam. International Nursing Review, 65(4), 505–514. Web.
Selleck, C., Deupree, J., Hodges, A., Holland, A., Plane, L., Horton, J., & Harper, D. C. (2018). Meeting the health care needs in rural Alabama: The power of partnerships. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 29(4), 1177-1187. Web.