Printer-friendly version

Assessment is an essential core public health function that is conducted to determine the extent or significance of health needs of a community. A community health assessment involves these Essential Public Health Services:

•  Monitor health status to identify and solve community health problems.
•  Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in a community.
•  Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues.

Prioritization is an important process for determining what should be done to address identified health needs of the community. Prioritization may be conducted to:

• Decide which health issue to address first based on critical need established through a review of available data.
• Prepare an order for addressing health needs based on available resources.
• Determine which health issues are most likely to be successfully impacted through available evidence-based interventions.

• Prioritizing the Needs of Your Community
• Social Determinants of Health
• Identifying Your Priority Population
• Printable Worksheet (.pdf) or (.doc)