Abstract
Background: Urban African American adolescents and young adults (AYAs) face multiple barriers to effective engagement in health care, including access to primary and specialty care services resulting in significant disparities in care.Purpose: To conduct a needs assessment to enhance service delivery of AYAs at an urban federally qualified health center (FQHC) organization in Detroit.Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted among pediatric staff members (N=11) using the community needs assessment approach specified for FQHCs.Results: The needs assessment determined the following priorities for AYAs seeking care at this FQHC organization: (1) mental health (e.g., depression and anxiety), (2) obesity, and (3) sexual health (e.g., sexually transmitted infection testing).Conclusion: When analyzing a population to learn about community-based issues, a needs assessment is a valuable tool. The information here has been used as supplemental information to address the health inequities that African American youth face within Detroit.
Highlights
Urban African American adolescents and young adults (AYAs) face multiple barriers to effective engagement in health care, resulting in significant disparities in care
From the larger community needs assessment (CNA), a total of 42 employees were interviewed by medical specialty as well as 460 patient satisfaction surveys were included to look at the population’s health priorities, preferences regarding care, and the vital role that federally qualified health center (FQHC) play within the community
70–75% of adolescents were stated affected by sexual health issues, and more than half are affected by obesity or related chronic conditions such as hypertension
Summary
Urban African American adolescents and young adults (AYAs) face multiple barriers to effective engagement in health care, resulting in significant disparities in care. Sexually transmitted infection (STI) rates are disproportionately high among African American AYAs aged 15–24 years.[1,2] They face many barriers to reproductive health care and health education, including inadequate STI screening by health care providers, lack of transportation, and limited access to insurance coverage.[3,4,5,6] The purpose of this brief is to define high-priority issues of an AYA community, describe the community needs assessment (CNA) process, determine the resources available to address these problems, and enhance service delivery among this population at an urban school linked federally qualified health center (FQHC). Urban African American adolescents and young adults (AYAs) face multiple barriers to effective engagement in health care, including access to primary and specialty care services resulting in significant disparities in care.
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