Palliative Care Program Spotlight: Palliative Care in the Community Setting—The Needs Assessment
“What the needs assessment really did was to help us to understand our stakeholders’ priorities . . . and our local environment.”
Any team that has undergone a transition during the initiation of a community-based palliative care program will attest to the amount of change and flexibility needed from within an organization. While commonalities exist from program to program, communities can differ in demographics, populations, or geographical barriers. Truly integrating community-based palliative care into an organization demands an ability to adapt and evolve depending on the specific obstacles.
In this episode, Amy Frieman, MD, of Meridian Health in Hackensack, NJ, discusses taking the first steps towards understanding the opportunities and challenges that she encountered during needs assessment of her team’s transition. She leads us through the creation of her program, and stresses why it is so important to take the time to understand your local environment and truly know your stakeholders. Amy’s story reinforces how needs assessment is so vital for the success of a program.