Health Needs Assessment Tools Currently in Use

A family health assessment is a process by which a nurse evaluates and describes the health status of a given family. It is a framework that helps to identify areas of potential risk for illness, opportunities for health education and actions needed to address these (World Health Organization, 2001). Specifics covered in a nurse led family assessment will include family history, perceptions about health, reports, health records, and any clinic test results. The nurse conducts an interview, compiles data and performs an appropriate

Assessment tools are used in the care planning process to build up a holistic picture of an individual’s needs. When all the details have been recorded an assessment can be made and suitable care and support can be identified. A few of the assessment tools are information from the individual such as diaries, observations, medical histories and checklists.

Assessment criteria 3.3- give examples from own practice of supporting children or young people to access and manage risks.

A child will be assessed by an educational psychologist if there are concerns about their intellectual, communication and behavioural development. Assessments can be arranged by the SENCO or independently. The aim of the assessments is to find out why the child is not progressing and what support is needed in order for them to progress. Specific learning difficulties are often identified in this way such as Dyslexia, AHAD, Dyspraxia. Support and targets for the child are then set to help them achieve. The outcome of the assessments may involve the child referred to other professionals e.g. occupational therapist, optometrist, speech and language therapist, psychiatrist. The psychologist will advise the school on how to promote development for example, keeping verbal instructions simple. Keep stories and group activities short to match attention span.

Understand how to monitor children and young people’s development and interventions that should take place if this is not following the expected pattern.

Children also need to communicate and socialise with their peers, children from other age groups and other adults. They need to feel safe and secure in their environment so that they feel able to speak to adults about any concerns they may have, or to ask questions and seek help without fear of embarrassment. They need good role models who can help them extend their decision making skills and develop independence appropriate to their age and development level. Practitioners have a further responsibility to provide additional support to children who may have special educational needs. This may be through individual sessions within the school, liaison with external services such as educational psychologists or through the CAF (Common Assessment Framework) process. The CAF process was developed to gather and assess information in relation to a child’s needs in development, parenting and the family environment. It is a service that should be offered to children (and their families) whose additional needs are not being met through universal services within the school. Practitioners also need to protect any children who may be at risk of significant harm because of their home life

A/c 1.2 The benefit of using a child centred model of assessment and planning is that you concentrate on the person and their specific and individual set of needs and circumstances. A child centred model promotes the rights of the child and allows them to communicate and say what they want for themselves. When children are moved to make the correct choice and take a lead using this type of assessment they tend to succeed as they develop their needs. Children and young people’s needs can be identified through observation and the sharing of information between those that are involved in the care of the young people or children. The parents and class teachers are the best places to identify individual needs because the young people spend more time at school and home than they do anywhere else. School/ home visits, review meetings, hospital consultations are some of the

Appendix 1 compares the concerned district with England in multiple areas of health issues. According to these statistics the locality, on average, in most health areas, is a healthier population than the rest of the country. Health concerns that are, on average a larger concern than the nation have been underlined and are, for example, a higher number of road injuries and deaths, a higher number of hip fractures in ages 65 and over and higher numbers of increasing and higher risk drinking. These may be explained by such that the life expectancy in both male and

Firstly before any legislation that a child is assessed under, an assessment has to be carried out to ascertain the following:

When looking at children and young people’s development it is important to recognise and respond to concerns to ensure that the child or young person receives the help and assistance needed.

There are many social, economical and cultural factors that impact on the lives of children and young people. In my role as a Young Carer’s Support Worker, I work with a number of families living with the consequences of these factors. Every Child Matters (ECM) aims to improve the outcomes and life chances of every child and young person, therefore, it is important we understand and do all we can to help them achieve the 5 outcomes of the ECM, stay safe, be healthy, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution, and, achieve economic well-being.

‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ 2010, (WTtSC 2010) instructs organisations and individuals working with children on how actions such as assessments should be done in accordance with the CA1989 and ensures that professionals understand what their responsibilities and duties are. This specific documentation assisted my understanding of the format in which assessments should be conducted as well as my understanding of multi-professional work surrounding A and his needs. Following guidelines from the Assessment Framework (WTtSC p.44), I was able to establish what A’s specific developmental needs were so they can be addressed during my mentoring sessions. Areas such as his education, family and social relationships and stimulation as well a look at the wider family unit and his environment. This multi-professional meeting was in fact my initial assessment.

The proposed evaluation framework will take overview pictures of the programme through ‘summative assessment’ because it will decide the effectiveness, efficiency and accountability of the programme at every year-end and end of the project. It will assess what health benefits are provided to the community; to what extent community and stakeholders engage in the programme; strengths and weakness of each programme activity; lessons learnt and the necessary areas to improve. The evaluation process will involve community participation as a fundamental characteristic of health promotion

The assessment process is the back bone to any package of care and it is vital that it is personal and appropriate to the individual concerned. Although studies have found that there is no singular theory or understanding as to what the purpose of assessment is, there are different approaches and forms of assessment carried out in health and social care. These different approaches can sometimes result in different outcomes.

When studying the health of the community, you must conduct an effective needs assessment. First, you need to identify why the assessment is being done, and what information you are looking for. You also need to know which method will be used to collect the information. There are two methods that can be used primary or secondary data. Primary data are collected through surveys, listening sessions, interviews, and observation (CDC, 2010). While, secondary is a data that has been collected by someone else for a different purpose (CDC, 2010). The type of data used depends on the available resources, manpower, technology, and time available (Community Tool Box, 2016). Once the data are collected, the results must be analyzed and evaluated on the