Community needs assessment and child-health advocacy — formative SAQs

SAQ 1 (10 marks)

Your clinic serves a suburb with rising food-bank use. Three families this week disclosed running out of food. Leadership wants a “community project.” [19] [21]

1. Distinguish patient-level advocacy from community needs assessment for this problem. (3) [1] [8]
2. Outline the first four steps of a structured needs-assessment cycle. (4) [8]
3. List three evaluation metrics that include equity. (3) [9]

Model answer

Patient-level: same-day food access, respectful screening, navigation and safety planning for each family. Community needs assessment: define the suburb/clinic panel, engage partners and family voice, gather mixed data on food insecurity and assets, then prioritise actions — not only individual letters. [1] [8] [21]

First steps: define community and question; engage partners (families, food services, schools, public health); collect quantitative and qualitative data; map assets and gaps before designing a branded programme. [8]

Metrics examples: proportion of screened families linked to food access; repeat food-insecurity screen positivity over time; gap between high- and low-deprivation groups narrowing; partner-reported access barriers reduced. [9] [19]