Key Characteristics Of The Beenleigh Community

(Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016)

Community needs assessment is the systematic process through which, by involving the resident community in the process overall needs of the community can be assessed. Further by prioritizing their needs and planning ways to achieve those need priorities, unmet community needs are achieved (Morrison-Saunders et al., 2014). There are several aspects of community needs assessment focused for a specific communities, health, education, relationships and religion and helps to understand the trends and needs of the society (Esteves, Franks & Vanclay, 2012). Therefore, for the successful implementation of the beneficial projects for the community and to decide the aspects that should be focused for the overall development of the society, it is important to understand the unmet needs of the population and identify the asset related gap existing within their locality (Kales, Gitlin & Lyketsos, 2014).  This assignment also carried out community need assessment in the Queensland state of Australia and collected data about the Beenleigh community. The data was collected with the support of the data obtained from Australian Bureau of Statistics of 2016.

Thesis statement: It is beneficial for the overall development of the community to conduct a community assessment program.

The purpose of the community assessment of Beenleigh, Queensland was to understand the needs of the community and the ways through which those needs can be assessed (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). The reason behind this is about the collaborative approach that helps to understand the likelihood of the targeted initiatives taken for the overall improvement of the locales. There are several principles depending on which the community needs and health assessment is done by the healthcare or community care authorities (Rohe, Van Zandt & McCarthy, 2013). These principles are targeted to include the community population in the growth and development of their fundamental needs, continuous evaluation of the change so that the success or failure of the process can be understood. Therefore the prime reason behind conducting community assessment is the active participation of ground level healthcare and social care workers within the community to understand the fundamental unmet needs of them (Moorhead et al., 2013). The process of community need assessment is depending on the three step model, according to which, the first step determines the topic regarding that the assessment will be done, the second step will be analyzing and gathering data to thirdly make decisions regarding the need of the people of the community. Within this three steps, a management plan of the assessment is prepared followed by identification of major concerns (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). Finally after prioritizing needs of the community, the findings are summarized and proper decisions are taken. Therefore, after the three steps three outcomes are observed such creation of successful data collection plan, understanding the high-priority based needs, and thirdly the preparation of action plan, written and oral briefing and preparation of the final report regarding the unmet needs of the community. According to Rohe, Van Zandt & McCarthy (2013), there is no such proper community assessment model or procedure is available and it can be changed according to the community, the target population of the desired topic on which the need assessment is carried out.

Social Determinants of Health in Beenleigh

The chosen community for the need assessment was Beenleigh of the Queensland, Australia. For the detection of the key characteristics of this community the Australian Government’s official website was assessed for the details of demographics, population, and other aspects of the community (Schouten, Linderman & Reid, 2013). According to the data of Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016), the total population in this community is 8252, within which 50.3% was male and 49.7% was female. The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders was 436 that determined their involvement in the community (Australian Bureau of Statistics). Secondly, the median age of the population was 37 years, however the percentage of people above 65 was 14.5% compared to below 14 years which was 15.2%. The percentage of registered marriage was 32% and people never married or unmarried was 43%, However, the rate of separated and divorces in combination was more than 18% that determined the disturbed mental and relationship related state of people in the community (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016).  Education is the prime characteristic of any community and this community also focused on education system, however the rate of people studies beyond bachelor’s degree was only 7 percent in the year 2016 and within 16.7 percent of the people who attained certificate level three education, only 7 percent indicates towards a major concern regarding the education system of the community. furthermore, other characteristic includes country of birth and religion according to which, maximum of the people in the community were Australian borne and belong to catholic religion, however, 32 percent of the people did not adopted any religion (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016).

The three social determinant of health that has been identified in the Beenleigh community while community assessment was the educational disparity and drastic fall of rate from certification level three to bachelor’s degree, secondly the incorporation of social inclusion and community cohesion measures so that ATSI disparity can be managed and thirdly the higher rate of divorce or separation within the community, that indicated towards the involvement of social discrimination or domestic violence within the community (Schouten, Linderman & Reid, 2013). These social determinant of health are important on the context of society as it is created due to the improper distribution of power, health, wealth and resources and leading to inequality within the society. The first social determinant of health, education is according to World Health Organization is helpful if attainment of different sustainable goals such as urbanization, better employment, women and gender equality, improvement in healthcare system and globalization. However, the educational census of the Beenleigh community determined that maximum rate of education was till the level of year 12 and year 10 education (Alley et al., 2016). Therefore, the population in that community is facing some hindrance regarding higher education. This hindrance can be of educational system or the low socio-economic status of the local population. The second social determinant of health selected was higher arte of divorce and separation and the reason behind this can be related to the social construct or domestic violence due to which, the relationship of the community is hampered (Lloyd Michener et al., 2012). Thirdly, the lower percentage of aboriginal or Torres strait islanders in the community indicated to the factor which might affect the ATSI minority population to take part in the such assessment, hence the active participation of those population in the community assessment is low. Hence from these social determinant of health, the community that has been chosen as the vulnerable community for need assessment is the ATSI community as their absence in the community assessment is a major concern and taking care of their health, security and integrity can enhance the social inclusion and community cohesion policy (Minkler, 2012).

To understand the health and social needs of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the Beenleigh community, promotional camp model will be chosen as through this, it will be easier to penetrate the social and mental barriers of those people and understand their needs from the government and the society (Lloyd Michener et al., 2012). The promotional camp model includes organization of health and social care campaigns in the area of the community where the dense population of ATSI is present, conducting personal interview with those people to understand their needs and collecting data and evidences so that the higher authority of the locality can be informed about the state of this community (Minkler, 2012). Therefore, the prime aim of this project will be penetrating the social exclusion barrier and promote social inclusion and community cohesion between the ATSI community and other majority population (Alley et al., 2016) For the Purpose, the local population will be employed for the promotional and interview related campaigns and the governmental buildings such as municipal hospitals and educational institutes will be used for conducting such program. Further, few of the psychologists and educational experts belonging to ATSI community will be hired so that the inherited fear of the community, about participation in the health or social need assessment can be understood (Minkler, 2012). Furthermore, these data and evidence will be provided to the higher authority of the Beenleigh so that proper interventions can be applied in the society and the ATSI community can be influenced and measures to strengthen the ASTI community in different aspects such as educational, financial and social aspect can be made possible. Interview on the other hand, will be made them open to the outer community and they will be able to put their questions and clarifications to the entire society without any hesitation. Therefore, these are the ways and measures that will be applied for interaction with the socially, economically and mentally vulnerable group of the Beenleigh Queensland (Lloyd Michener et al., 2012).

Community needs assessment is the means through which, the community itself help the assessor to identify their needs, their concerns and helps to fulfill the need of the society as well as the people (. This assignment focused on such community, Beenleigh which is a part of Queensland, Australia and determined to find out different key characterization of the community through the use of Australian Bureau of Statistics. The characteristics, which were assessed are the educational level, the age group, the male and female ratio, the marital status and the religion of the community. Further from that three social determinant of health was decided and within that one community was selected for the need assessment and evaluation. Furthermore, after the successful completion of the assessment, technique was finalized through which the need of the ATSI community will be assessed. Interview and healthcare promotional camp was chosen as the intervention for the identification of the need of population so that higher authority can perform their task by implementing processes to manage the healthcare needs of the population.

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