Putting the community back in community health assessment: a process and outcome approach with a review of some major issues for public health professionals

Community health assessment is a tool for allocating resources in a manner responsive to the community needs and conducive to maximizing community input in decision-making. A process-focused, team approach that draws upon social and behavioral sciences, as well as public health and medical disciplines, is presented--in the context of definitions of community and health and models of community health determinants--as a means of maximizing community involvement in local health issues. Such an approach requires that professionals function less as "experts" than as resources to community members, who are engaged in every step of the process.