COMMUNITY DIAGNOSIS/

COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION
BY
DR. F. ADIO
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH & COMMUNITY MEDICINE
UNIVERSITY OF BENIN TEACHING HOSPITAL
MARCH, 2021
 Outline
 Introduction
-What is a Community?
 Community Diagnosis
- Importance of Community Diagnosis
- The Process of making a Community Diagnosis
 Community Mobilization
- Definition
- Benefits of Community Mobilization
- Community Action Cycle for Mobilization
- Challenges of Community Mobilization
 Conclusion
 References
 Introduction
• Community Health deals with services that aim
at protecting the health of the community.
• It includes an important diagnostic element –
‘community diagnosis’ – aimed at surveying and
m o ni to ri ng c o m m uni t y he a l t h ne e d s a nd
assessing the impact of interventions.
(Lucas & Gilles, 2003)
 Introduction…
• C ommu n ity: A grou p of people w ith a
common characteristic or interest living
together within a larger society.
• In general a community can be described in
terms of ‘place’, ‘interest’ and ‘communion’.
– Geographically defined

–S h a r e d i n t e r e s t s , i d e n t i t y a n d / o r
characteristics

– Shared resources
 Community Diagnosis
Definition
• A comprehensive assessment of the health
status of a community in relation to its social,
physical and biological environment.
• The focus is on the identif ic ation of the basic
he al th ne e d s and he al th p rob l e m s of a
community. (Park, 2011)
 Community Diagnosis…
Importance of community diagnosis
 To ascertain the health status of the community
 To i d e nti f y p ri ori ti e s, e stab l i sh g oal s and
determine courses of action to improve the
health status of the community.
 To evaluate the health resources, services and
systems of care within the community
 To assess attitudes towards community health
services and issues.
 To establish baseline data necessary for making
evaluations.
Community Diagnosis…

FIG 1: COMMUNITY DIAGNOSIS PROCESS

 Community Diagnosis…
How is community diagnosis carried out?
• Community diagnosis is based on the collection
and anal ysi s o f re l ev ant d ata i nc l ud i ng
information on social and economic factors.
• The process of community diagnosis involves:
 Initiation: Setting up a working group involving
all relevant p arties, identifying resourc es,
def in ing the scope of the project and a work
schedule/ plan of action
 Community Diagnosis…
 Data collection:
 Data on health-related issues e.g.
s o c i o d e m o g ra p h i c c h a ra c t e ri s t i c s , v i t a l
statistics, incidence and prevalence of diseases
and he al th re l ate d e v e nts, e nv i ro nm e ntal
assessment, health resources and services, etc…
 Community Diagnosis…
 Data collection…
• Data can be quantitative or qualitative, and can
be obtained from primary or secondary sources.

• Data collection methods may include:

Observations, surveys, interviews (In-depth/Key
informant interviews), , Focus Group Discussions,
Record reviews, etc.
 Community Diagnosis…
 Community analysis: The process of examining
data to def ine the needs, strengths, barriers,
opportunities, readiness and resources.

 The product of analysis is the ‘community profile”

 Community diagnosis is made using health

indicators e.g. mortality indicators, morbidity
indicators, nutritional status indicators etc…
 Community Diagnosis…
 Dissemination of information to relevant parties
• The production of the community diagnosis
report is not an end in itself.
• Efforts should be put into communication to
ensure that targeted actions are taken.
• Ta rg e t a ud i e nc e f o r d i sse m i na t i o n o f
information includes policy-makers, health
professionals and the general public in the
community.
 Community Diagnosis…
 Dissemination of information to relevant parties…
• T he re p or t c an b e d i sse m i nate d throug h the
following channels:
- presentations at meetings of the health boards and
committees, or forums organised for voluntary
organisations, local community groups and the
general public
- press release
- thematic events (such as health fairs and other
health promotion programmes)
 Community Diagnosis…
• Dissemination of information to relevant parties…
• It is important to realise that Community Diagnosis
is not a one-off project, but is part of a dynamic
p ro c e ss l e a d i ng to h e a l t h p ro m o t i o n i n t h e
community.

• T he re f o re , c o m m uni t y d i a g no si s sho ul d b e
conducted at regular intervals to allow the HCP be
continuously improved.
 Community Mobilization

Definitions
• A capacity building process through which
c o m m u n i t y, i n d i v i d u a l s , g r o u p s , a n d
organizations plan, carry out, and evaluate
activities on a participatory and sustained basis
to achieve an agreed upon goal.
• A m e ans o f e nc o urag i ng , i nf lue nc i ng and
arousing the interest of people to make them
actively involved in f inding solutions to some of
their own problems.
• The goal can be one of their own initiatives or
stimulated by others
 Community Mobilization …
• Community mobilization is useful in achieving
participation which will eventually lead to
ownership and sustainability.
• A community becomes mobilized when a
particular group of people becomes aware of a
shared concern or common need, and decides
together to take action in order to create shared
benefits.
Benefits of Community Mobilization

• Enables a better response to community needs

and concerns because of participatory problem
identification, prioritization, and decision-making

• Creates a united voice for changing laws, policies

and practices that would overwhelm or endanger a
single individual

• Enables communities to address underlying

causes of social and/or health problems
Benefits Of Community Mobilization…

• Allows for more cost-effective programming

(programme resources are complemented by
community resources)

• Promotes sustainability (beyond funding cycles

for projects) and long-term commitment to a
social change movement

• Expands community support for the work and the

organization and brings new volunteers
 Benefits Of Community Mobilization…

• Provides opportunities for the organization and

individuals to develop new leadership skills

• Strengthens community participation

• Offers an opportunity to work in partnership with
progressive people in the community
When communities start believing in themselves,
they become inspired to act!

Community action cycle
 Phase 1: Prepare to mobilize

• Discuss various health and development issues

and define the community
• Put together a community mobilization team
• Gather information about the health
/development issue and the community
• Identify resources and constraints
• Develop a community mobilization plan
• Develop your team
 Phase 2: Organize the community
for action

• Orient the community
• Build relationships, trust, credibility, and a sense
of ownership with the community
• Invite community participation
• Develop a ‘core group’ from the community
 Phase 3: Explore the health issue
and set priorities
• Decide upon the objectives for this phase
• Explore the health issue with the core group
• With the core group, explore the health issue in
the broader community
• Analyze the information
• Set priorities for action
 Setting priorities
T he f o l l o wi ng q ue sti o ns c an he l p c o m m uni ti e s
prioritize health problems:
• Severity: Is the problem life-threatening? Does it lead
to chronic life complications?
• Fre que nc y: How m any p e op l e e x p e ri e nc e the
problem?
• Risk: How many people could experience it in the
future?
• Impact: What is the impact of the problem on our
community right now? What kind of impact could it
have in the future if we don’t address it?
• Feasibility: Have any effective responses to the
problem been identif ied? Does the community have
 Priority-setting exercise
• Work with the community to identify the full
range of potential priorities
• Develop a set of picture cards, one for each
problem
• Divide core group into smaller groups of 3-5
people each
• Ask individuals to rank their priorities using the
cards. Cards that are not deemed priority by all
group members can be set aside. Other cards
can be sorted based on priority-setting criteria
(severity, risk, frequency, impact, feasibility)
• Have small groups share their work and discuss
to arrive at consensus on the general priorities
 Phase 4: Plan together
• Decide on the objectives of the planning process
• Determine who will be involved in planning and
their roles and responsibilities
• Design the planning session
• Conduct/facilitate the planning session to create
a community action plan
 Planning together:
Questions to ask
• What does the community wish to achieve?
• How can the goal be achieved?
• Who will be responsible for each activity and the
results?
• What resources are needed? How can they be
obtained?
• When and where will activities be implemented?
• How will the community monitor progress and
know when results have been achieved?
 Phase 5: Act together
• De f ine yo ur te am’s ro l e i n ac c o m p anyi ng
community action
• Strengthen the community’s capacity to carry out
its action plan
• Monitor community progress
• P ro b l e m - so l v e , tro ub l e sho o t, ad v i se , and
mediate conflicts
 Phase 6: Evaluate together
• De te rm i ne who wants to l e arn f ro m the
evaluation
• Ensure buy-in of the participatory monitoring and
evaluation process from all stakeholders
• Form a representative evaluation team with
community members and other stakeholders
• Determine what participants want to learn from
the evaluation
 Evaluate together

• Determine what information is needed to answer

the key questions
• Map the f lo w of monitoring information and
feedback in the project
• Identify who will conduct the participatory
monitoring
• Use participatory methods and tools to collect
information; use simple language and images
 Evaluate together

• Share results inside and outside the community

– with all stakeholders – to determine lessons
learned and plan next steps.
• Encourage affected individuals and groups to
use the information to advocate for further
change or to scale up projects in additional
areas.
Challenges of Community Mobilization

• May create tension for the organization, such as

deciding how much authority will be given to
activist groups to decide the agenda

• May create backlash/tension as a result of a

more direct action agenda

• Requires leadership skills that may not readily

exist within the organization
 Challenges of Community
Mobilization...
• Requires expanded personal commitment from
people doing the work
• R e q u i re s c o m m i t m e n t o f re s o u rc e s a n d
leadership to work with new constituencies and
communities
• May be perceived as less important than direct
services
• Challenges the organization to decide what kind
of partnership it wants in working with people at
the community level - may require new training
programmes for people to work together as
allies
Thank you for listening
 REFERENCES
• Howard-Grabnam L, Snetro G (2003). How to
mobilize communities for health and social
change. Baltimore MD: Health Communication
Patnership.

• Lucas AO, Gilles HM (2003). Short textbook of

Public Health Medicine for the Tropics. 4 th
Edition, London: Hodder Arnold. Pp 4
 REFERENCES
• MacQueen KM, McLellan E, Metzger DS, Kegeles
S, Strauss RP et al. (2001). What is Community?
An Evidence-Based Def inition for Participatory
Public Health. Am J Public Health; v.9(12): 1929
-1938.

• Park K (2011). Park’s Textbook of Preventive and

Social Medicine. 21 st Edition, India:Bhanot. Pp
46