title: Putting the community back in community health assessment: a process and outcome approach with a review of some major issues for public health professionals.
abstract: Community health assessment is a tool for allocating resources in a manner responsive to the community needs and conducive to maximizing community input in decision-making. A process-focused, team approach that draws upon social and behavioral sciences, as well as public health and medical disciplines, is presented--in the context of definitions of community and health and models of community health determinants--as a means of maximizing community involvement in local health issues. Such an approach requires that professionals function less as "experts" than as resources to community members, who are engaged in every step of the process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, 228 Parran Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA.
authors.forename: Ravi K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Sharma
mesh_terms: D018672:Community Health Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003256:Community Participation; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D006801:Humans; D017146:Models, Organizational; D020380:Needs Assessment; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011635:Public Health Administration; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D014481:United States