152 3. Community action potential, or the patterns In which the community is likely to work on its health pr,oblems Communities take different courses of action to address their health needs and problems. Each develops its own approach to mobilize communi ty participation for health. The nurse assesses the comn1unity for its attributes that determine the pattern of health action. Freeman and Heinrich (1981) describe the following importan t aspects of community hea1th action: a. Value people give to health over their other needs in life that provide the forward motion for health action-Is the health problem perceived to be important to the people? Is it perceived to need immediate attention? Are there otber concerns in the community that take priority? b. Community's relationship with the politicalsy sten1 a ndgovernn1 ent institutions that support health actions-How responsive is the government to the health needs and problems of the community? To what extent does the political system or government institutions allow for people's organizations' participation in decision-making about planning and implementation of health actions? c. Habits that the community has d. eveloped for dealing with common problems-Is there genuine partnership among all stakeholders to push the agenda of promoting and sustaining health in the community? What are the different approaches or strategies that they have developed and implemented ? Types of Community Diagnosis In the assessment of the commun ity's health status, the nurse considers the degree of detail or depth of inquiry. Comprehensive assessment is normally done when the nurse bas not had opportun ity of working with tbe community and its people. The nurse needs informati on to help hel' understan d the community and facilitate its enabling process. Oftentimes, the nurse is c9nfronted with a specific problem area llke a disaster situation or an outbreak of disease. In these instances, a problem-orien ted assessment will have to be conducted. A nurse may decide to assess a specific population group in the community, in which case, she may opt to conduct a comprehensive assessmen t of that group and at the same time, focus on the specific problems of that same group. It is important, therefore, to decide on the objectives of the comm. unity diagnosis, the resources and time available to implement it. Comprehensive Community Diagnosis A comprehensive community diagnosis aims to obtain general information about the community "with the intent of determining not only prevalent health conditions and risk factors (epidemiologic approach) but also the socio-economic conditions (socio­ economic approach) and lifestyle behaviors and attitudes that have effect· on health (behavioral approach). TI1e following are elements of a comprehensive commun ity diagnosis and the basic data that are needed to characterize each variable: 