A scoping review of community health needs and assets assessment: concepts, rationale, tools and uses.

BACKGROUND: Community health needs and assets assessment is a means of identifying and describing community health needs and resources, serving as a mechanism to gain the necessary information to make informed choices about community health. The current review of the literature was performed in order to shed more light on concepts, rationale, tools and uses of community health needs and assets assessment. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review of the literature published in English using PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, PDQ evidence, NIH database, Cochrane library, CDC library, Trip, and Global Health Library databases until March 2021. RESULTS: A total of 169 articles including both empirical papers and theoretical and conceptual work were ultimately retained for analysis. Relevant concepts were examined guided by a conceptual framework. The empirical papers were dominantly conducted in the  United States. Qualitative, quantitative and mixed-method approaches were used to collect data on community health needs and assets, with an increasing trend of using mixed-method approaches. Almost half of the included empirical studies used participatory approaches to incorporate community inputs into the process. CONCLUSION: Our findings highlight the need for having holistic approaches to assess community's health needs focusing on physical, mental and social wellbeing, along with considering the broader systems factors and structural challenges to individual and population health. Furthermore, the findings emphasize assessing community health assets as an integral component of the process, beginning foremost with community capabilities and knowledge. There has been a trend toward using mixed-methods approaches to conduct the assessment in recent years that led to the inclusion of the voices of all community members, particularly vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. A notable gap in the existing literature is the lack of long-term or longitudinal-assessment of the community health needs assessment impacts.

Tailoring a training based on the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) Intervention Guide (IG) to Tunisia: process and relevant adaptations.

BACKGROUND: In order to make mental health services more accessible, the Tunisian Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the School of Public Health at the University of Montreal, the World Health Organization office in Tunisia and the Montreal World Health Organization-Pan American Health Organization Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Mental Health, implemented a training programme based on the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) Intervention Guide (IG) (version 1.0), developed by the World Health Organization. This article describes the phase prior to the implementation of the training, which was offered to general practitioners working in primary care settings in the Greater Tunis area of Tunisia. METHODS: The phase prior to implementation consisted of adapting the standard mhGAP-IG (version 1.0) to the local primary healthcare context. This adaptation process, an essential step before piloting the training, involved discussions with stakeholder groups, as well as field observations. RESULTS: Through the adaptation process, we were able to make changes to the standard training format and material. In addition, the process helped uncover systemic barriers to effective mental health care. CONCLUSIONS: Targeting these barriers in addition to implementing a training programme may help reduce the mental health treatment gap, and promote implementation that is successful and sustainable.

The PATH project in eight European countries: an evaluation.

PURPOSE: This paper's aim is to evaluate the perceived impact and the enabling factors and barriers experienced by hospital staff participating in an international hospital performance measurement project focused on internal quality improvement. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Semi-structured interviews involving international hospital performance measurement project coordinators, including 140 hospitals from eight European countries (Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia). Inductively analyzing the interview transcripts was carried out using the grounded theory approach. FINDINGS: Even when public reporting is absent, the project was perceived as having stimulated performance measurement and quality improvement initiatives in participating hospitals. Attention should be paid to leadership/ownership, context, content (project intrinsic features) and processes supporting elements. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: Generalizing the findings is limited by the study's small sample size. Possible implications for the WHO European Regional Office and for participating hospitals would be to assess hospital preparedness to participate in the PATH project, depending on context, process and structural elements; and enhance performance and practice benchmarking through suggested approaches. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This research gathered rich and unique material related to an international performance measurement project. It derived actionable findings.

Selection of indicators for hospital performance measurement: a report on the 3rd and 4th workshop: Barcelona, Spain, June and September 2003

The current restructuring of health care services among European countries, the development of new common policy orientations, focusing on accountability and quality improvement strategies, and a growing interest in patient satisfaction assessment highlight the importance of efficient and high quality hospital organization throughout Europe. These orientations are strong incentives for raising the value of hospital performance assessment. The WHO Regional Office for Europe decided to run a project on hospital performance assessment. The aim of the project is to build and validate a flexible and comprehensive model of hospital performance assessment enhancing quality improvement and evidence-based management. Since January 2003, the following outcomes were achieved: definition of the main concepts and identification of key dimensions of hospital performance assessment; design of the general architecture of a performance measurement tool enhancing evidence-based management and quality improvement through benchmarking; expansion of the theoretical work on the expansion of the key dimensions of hospital performance; definition of a framework to select performance indicators on the basis of evidence and availability of data (through a survey in 10 European countries); review of 200 hospital performance indicators; selection of a draft core set of 25 performance indicators and of a broader tailored set; design of a draft balanced dashboard enhancing quality improvement and evidence-based management. During a final workshop dedicated to finalizing the balanced dashboard for future pilot implementation and possible expansion, the core balanced set of performance indicators was agreed on; the trade-offs between the measures were identified and highlighted; the presentation of the dashboard was discussed in order to maximize its educational value; the educational aspects were discussed and a strategy was defined in order to maximize the chances of success of a pilot implementation; a strategy for future expansion of the model was discussed and eventually the orientations of the pilot implementation were agreed on