Ecological Model includes: - ✅✅ -- Individuals traits (age; gender; biological,
mental, and behavioral factors
- Social, family, and community relationships
- Occupational and home environments
- Overall conditions created by local, state, national, and worldwide forces and
trends
Factors to Consider when determining the health of a community - ✅✅ --
Status: Epidemiological data, client satisfaction, mental health, crime rates
- Structure: Presence of health care activities, service types and patterns of
use, demographic data
- Process: Relationships, communication, commitment to and participation in
health
Informant Interviews - ✅✅ -Direct discussion with community members
Strengths
- Minimal cost
- Participants serving as future supporters
- Offers insight into beliefs and attitudes of community members
- Reading/writing of participants not required
- Personal interaction can elicit more detailed responses
Limitations
- Built-in bias
- Meeting time and place
Community Forum - ✅✅ -Open public meeting
Strengths
- Opportunity for community input
- Minimal cost
Limitations
- Difficulty finding convenient time and place
- Potential to drift from the issue
- Challenging to get adequate participation
- Possibility that a less vocal person can be reluctant to speak
Secondary Data - ✅✅ -Use of existing data
Strengths
- Database of prior concerns/needs of population
, - Ability to trend health issues over time
Limitations
- Possibility that data might not represent the current situation
- Can be time-consuming
Participant Observation - ✅✅ -Observation of formal and informal community
activities
Strengths
- Indication of community priorities, environmental profile, and identification of
power structures
Limitations
- Bias
- Time-consuming
- Inability to ask questions of participants
Focus Groups - ✅✅ -Directed talk with a representative sample
Strengths
- Possibility of participants being potential supporters
- Provides insight into community support
- Reading/writing of participants not required
Limitations
- Possible discussion of irrelevant issues
- Challenging to get participants
- Requires strong facilitator
- Difficult to ensure that sample is truly representative of the overall community
- Time-consuming to transcribe discussion
Surveys - ✅✅ -Specific questions asked in a written format
Strengths
- Data collected on client population and problems
- Random sampling
- Available as written or online format
- Contact with participants not required
Limitations
- Low response rate
- Expensive
- Time-consuming
- Possibility of collection of superficial data
- Requires reading/writing abilities of participants