Community diagnosis is a WHO tool used to plan health programmes that direct care to those in greatest need and address issues important to the local community. It does this by:
· Describing the health of local people (looking at demographics, environment, health status and available services)
· Identifying the major risk factors and causes of ill health; and
· Outlining actions needed to address these.
During this GPCD placement you will use this concept to examine an aspect of the health of your local area. You will need to identify one specific topic or health need in your locality that interests you and further explore how this health need could be better met.
The following steps outline the process for your GPCD project:
1) Planning – choosing your locality, topic and brainstorming the information you would like to gather.
2) Data collection (history and examination) - quantitative, observational and possibly qualitative data
3) Diagnosis and treatment – use the information gathered to suggest a plan that would improve the health needs of that local community in relation to your topic of choice.
4) Presentation of findings – create a 5 minute presentation to outline your findings and plan to your tutorial group. There is limited time in the tutorial so you will be given a 4min warning from your tutor. Please use the final minute to conclude your presentation so everyone has their allocated time. Time-keeping is an important part of developing presentation skills and we would encourage to do an Elevator Pitch style presentation.
Each step above is explored in further detail below: