Health Communication for Diabetes Programs Personal Capacity Assessment

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1 Health Communication for Diabetes Programs Needs Assessment Thank you for registering to attend the Health Communication for Diabetes Programs course at the 2011 Institute. We are looking forward to working with you in what will be an engaging and informative course. Health communication offers powerful tools for addressing behavior change, engaging partners, and promoting environmental and policy change. During the course, we will review the steps involved in planning and implementing health communication activities. Our focus will be on how you can apply the principles and techniques of health communication in a diabetes program. Expect to leave with an action plan of steps you can begin to implement when you return to work. We encourage your to bring examples and questions from your organization. You can also bring a wi-fi enabled laptop or device to use during the course though this is not required. We would like you to complete a needs assessment in preparation for the course. This assessment will help us identify your training needs, and program opportunities and challenges. Completing the assessment will allow us to tailor the course content and identify resources that will meet your needs. To complete the needs assessment, please follow these steps in order: 1. First, complete the personal capacity assessment. This should take about 5 minutes. This will help us to understand your personal learning goals. 2. Next, complete the Stakeholder Questions. To answer these questions, you will need to speak with your supervisor or director, someone you work with inside your agency, and someone you work with outside your agency or department. The answers these questions will provide valuable insight into your stakeholders perceptions and expectations about health communication in your program. You can choose to interview stakeholders or the questions to them. This will help provide context for your work. 3. Finally, complete the Needs Assessment Summary. This will help you further refine your training needs and priorities. It should take about 5 to 10 minutes. We want to make sure we provide you with a course that meets your needs, so please do fill out this assessment. The responses to these questions will be used to develop the case studies we will use during the class. We will also refer to them during discussions and they will serve as the basis for your action plan. Your responses will not be shared outside of the class and you do not need to provide identifying information about your stakeholders. These worksheets will also be used during the workshop. Be sure to bring completed copies with you.

2 Health Communication for Diabetes Programs Personal Capacity Assessment The purpose of this questionnaire is to identify your current needs, knowledge and skills related to planning and implementing health communication activities. Please complete this before you move on to the other assessments. 1. What are your duties related to planning and implementing health communication activities (eg developing materials, managing contractors, evaluation, etc)? 2. Please rate your level of knowledge or expertise in the following areas (highlight your response in red or yellow or type an X to the left of your response): Knowledge of health communication theories, principles, and practices. Very knowledgeable Somewhat knowledgeable Not knowledgeable Engaging leadership, partners and other stakeholders to effectively plan and implement health communication activities. Soliciting input from individuals and organizations for program planning and evaluation. Leveraging community networks, and interpersonal channels for health communication activities Leveraging community media for health communication activities Managing day-to-day health communication program activities Principles, practices and uses of health communication campaign evaluation Very knowledgeable Somewhat knowledgeable Not knowledgeable Using literature reviews, formative research results, and other data in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of health communication programs Very knowledgeable Somewhat knowledgeable Not knowledgeable 3. What health communication skills would you like to improve (please list)?

3 4. What do you see as the priorities for health communication within your agency? 5. What do you see as the barriers to conducting health communication activities within your organization (highlight or place an X next to all that apply)? Lack of interest Low priority Lack of skills/knowledge Lack of resources Not the focus of our CDC funding Other (please specify)

4 Health Communication For Diabetes Programs Stakeholder Questions The purpose of this worksheet is to engage your leadership, internal and external stakeholders in identifying the health communication needs of your organization. To complete the form, gather responses to the questions in the first column from your supervisor or program leadership, a colleague or other internal stakeholder, and a partner or other external stakeholder. Choose the people who have an impact on, or are impacted by, your agency s health communication activities. You may also want to ask program leadership about which stakeholders they would like to see respond to the questions. You can gather feedback through interviews or via . Program leadership/supervisor Internal Stakeholder External Stakeholder What are the current priorities for health communication within our program? What challenges do we face? Which of our current challenges are manageable and impactful (ie will make a difference, are the best place to start, have the greatest payoff, take care of other problems, and/or get us a quick win)? What are your concerns about adding/increasing health communication activities? What opportunities are currently available to us to enhance health

5 communication in our program? What have been some of our most important successes to date? What opportunities should we be developing? What, if any, program resources related to health communication planning, implementation and/or evaluation are going unused? Additional Comments

6 Health Communication Needs Assessment Summary Please answer the following questions after you have completed all of the other needs assessment questions. These questions are meant to summarize your take away messages from the entire review process. 1. What common themes did you hear across stakeholders? 2. What key differences did you hear among stakeholders? 3. What did you hear that surprised/challenged you? 4. Based on what you learned in the review, list 3 key areas you think you will need to address in your health communication program activities. 5. What, if anything is missing from the big picture so far? Where do you need more knowledge, skills or support?