Open AccessNeeds and Needs Assessments
Author(s) -
David Beran
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
sage open
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.357
H-Index - 32
ISSN - 2158-2440
DOI - 10.1177/2158244015580375
Subject(s) - needs assessment , psychosocial , scope (computer science) , fundamental human needs , health care , psychological intervention , basic needs , special needs , medicine , psychology , nursing , computer science , poverty , psychiatry , sociology , social psychology , political science , social science , programming language , law
It is argued that to improve health, health systems are required tomeet people’s needs and therefore health systems should identify these needs and find away to prioritize these. For those with chronic diseases, these needs are necessary tomanage their condition and go beyond purely the health system. A literature search foundthat studies published on identifying the needs of people with chronic diseases fallinto the following categories: standardized tools, comparison of needs betweenindividuals and health professionals, tools for evaluation, and description of needs.This review highlights the gap between tools used to assess health care needs versusneeds for health. It found that a considerable portion of articles focused solely onhealth care needs. Many tools focused specifically on psychological or psychosocialneeds and only one tool identified included a broad range of needs for health. Theliterature fails to address the wider needs of people with chronic conditions and isstill focused on medical interventions. Given the disease burden and the impact of needsoutside of the formal health system, needs assessments should be able to capture thefull range and scope of the needs of an individual