You will need to spend some time exploring the public health data of your chosen locality (using the PHE finger tips profiles). Use this to help identify what are the different health and social needs of that area.
Choice of topic
For your project you will need to choose one specific health or social need to focus on.
Examples of possible topics to examine could be:
· Obesity
· Mental health of young people
· Alcohol
· Gambling
· Air pollution
· Health needs of a specific group of people (eg children, the local Kurdish community or the homeless population
Choosing your locality
We recommend that you familiarise yourself with the data in order to be able to choose a locality that you wish to explore further
What information would you like to gather?
Consider some of the questions below to help outline the type of information you will need to gather on your chosen topic. Not all these questions will be relevant to your topic.
a) What are the key characteristics of the population?
o Age, gender, ethnicity, language, social class, employment, literacy etc
b) What is the health status of the people? –
o leading causes of mortality and morbidity
o behaviour measures such as rates of smoking or breastfeeding
o what health inequalities are present – who does not access care in this community or who’s healthcare needs are not being met
c) What local factors are affecting their health and what impact do they have (good and bad)? – For example:
o Economic factors such as levels of unemployment, income and poverty,
o Environmental factors such as air pollution, transport, sanitation and housing.
o Social cohesion factors such as networks of friends and families, migration, opportunities for leisure activities and green space.
d) What health and social care services are currently being provided?