Community
Nutrition Assessment
A Community Nutrition Planning Group
Background
We often form planning groups of convenience due to the cost and time considerations of asking those outside of our usual pattern of work to join us. The following information may be of use to those who would like to consider a more inclusive approach. Many of these ideas are adapted from Know Your Community: A Step-by-Step Guide to Community Needs and Resources by Bryan Samuels and colleagues. This book would serve as a valuable resource for more information. Please see the reference section.Information in this section also came from our early work with Colleen Monahan, who works at the University of Chicago and has had several years of experience with community assessment for children with special health care needs as well as the needs assessment process for the Maternal and Child Health population.
Forming a community nutrition planning group is central to the assessment and planning process. It may take more work than originally anticipated to recruit and support this group, but experience with community development programs indicates that this work is essential to long term success. Local needs will vary, however there are some important considerations
Responsibilities
The group can take on several responsibilities depending on the scope of the assessment process:- collecting community data and information
- identifying health needs and gaps in service
- setting priorities for health needs
- developing a health plan for the community
- helping to implement interventions (programs) identified in the health plan
- assisting in the evaluation of the assessment and planning process
Membership
The first item to consider is if an already existing group could function as a planning group--a new group may not need to be organized. Consider health planning groups or coalitions that have worked on planning initiatives in your community in the past--are members of these groups willing to take on a new task, or might they recommend representatives from other groups? Do existing groups contain service consumers?The ideal planning group would consist of key community leaders, representatives of service providers, health organizations, schools, political office holders, and consumer representatives.
Consider including consumer representatives for nutrition services at least for some of the planning meetings. Potential people to include are parents and pregnant women, parents of children with special health care needs, adults with disabilities or chronic health conditions, the homeless, and elderly. Consumers use the services in the community and can bring a valuable perspective to issues regarding access, quality, and coordination of services. Representatives of relevant ethnic, racial, or other significant groups in the community can provide new insights.
The number of planning members should probably not exceed fifteen persons. However, it is a good idea to invite an excess of persons to join the community planning group because keeping people involved throughout all phases of the process can sometimes be difficult.
When selecting prospective planning group members, care should be taken to include key persons who can represent the interests and needs of the targeted subject or population for the assessment, and who can bring different viewpoints as well as different areas of expertise to the process. For example, the planning group may include people with experience in: clinical nutrition, public health nutrition, home services, pharmaceutical services, etc. The planning group needs people who can point out strengths and weaknesses in the local system of health services, and people who are articulate and care about the planning process. In addition, when selecting planning group members, it may be worthwhile to consider whether a person has had previous planning experience, which is a plus, but in that case consider if the person feels burned out on the process. See Finding Local Nutritionists for ideas about potential committee members.
Because state level agencies and other organizations that develop health policies or offer services that affect health care systems at the community level constitute existing, organized groups that are already committed to improving community health, they should be involved in the needs assessment. These groups can help facilitate local planning efforts and promote local partnerships. They are an excellent source of information, expertise, and other invaluable resources. They can provide technical assistance, develop joint data bases, and help communities to obtain financial support to achieve goals and objectives.
Some of these groups, however, may have their own agenda, and may have to respond to the requirements of a state or national authority, which may bias their views. Nevertheless, if these groups are selected with care, and find areas of mutual benefit in the planning process, these barriers can be overcome.
Before potential members commit to serving on the planning group they should understand: the responsibilities of the planning group, how often the planning group might meet, and the fact that they may need to participate in facilitating focus groups, surveys, and other data collecting methods. Frequency of meeting should be discussed early in the planning process.
If planning group members are not familiar with the process of community assessment and/or community nutrition assessment, it might be helpful to refer them to this web site or to the ASTPEND resources listed in the Suggested Bookshelf section before they attend the first meeting.
Location of meetings and suitability of meeting space can add or detract significantly from the function of the group. Consider travel time, parking, distractions, room set up, tools for noting group ideas and plans and availability of refreshments.
At the first planning group meeting, the group needs to select a coordinator.
The coordinator might be the person who organized the group or someone
else. The coordinator should make sure that all members understand
their responsibilities as members. The group should appoint
or elect a person to take minutes of the meetings, and minutes should be
distributed before or at each meeting. An easy way of communicating
with all members will facilitate group functioning. Consider electronic
mail and/or FAX if all members can access these.
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