Assessing the public's health: community diagnosis in North Carolina

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^SjPg" . \n ES A SPECIAL REPORT SERIES BY THE N.C. DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH, AND NATURAL RESOURCES
STATE CENTER FOR HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL STATISTICS
P.O. BOX 29538, RALEIGH, N.C. 27626-0538
No. 63 April 1992
SPECIAL EDITION
ASSESSING THE PUBLIC'S HEALTH:
COMMUNITY DIAGNOSIS IN NORTH CAROLINA
by
Kathryn B. Surles and Kathryn P. Blue
ABSTRACT
The Community Diagnosis process in North Carolina has evolved over a period of years, beginning in
1974 but greatly gaining impetus during and after 1983. It serves to address the "true" health problems of
the state's citizenry through the identification and communication of these problems from the local level
to the state. In this "bottom-up" planning process, which is conducted biennially, the state prepares 100
county-specific Health Data Books and an accompanying guide which advises local health department
personnel on the concepts, methods, and materials of community diagnosis.
This information is presented at a series of workshops attended by local personnel who subsequently
analyze the data and their local situations and report back to the state their county's priority health
problems and solution strategies. These results are then used by the State Health Director to determine
funding requests to the legislature. In the end, it is hoped that the products of this process serve the
ultimate goal of allocating resources on a priority basis to meet the documented health needs ofNorth
Carolinians.
For a local health authority, The Future of Public Health (Institute of Medicine, 1988) defines a health
planning and leadership role that is fundamental to the protection of the community's health.
Community Diagnosis provides for the kind of needs assessment that is crucial to that role.