Adding Value through Community Participation: Evaluating Capacity in Community Health Committees

Abstract

This article describes the procedure involved in evaluating the effectiveness of the capacity-building process within the Community Health Committees (CHCs) established by the Sunrise Health Service Aboriginal Corporation (SHSAC) as part of their service governance structure. SHSAC itself was set up as the initial stage of the rollout of the Katherine East Coordinated Care Trial in the Northern Territory. A purposive sample of three CHCs was selected in consultation with SHSAC for the evaluation.

The development of an evaluation instrument and the subsequent evaluation of the capacity of the health committees was one part of the overall evaluation of the Katherine East Coordinated Care Trial. The criteria for measuring capacity were developed in close collaboration with members of the CHCs and the SHSAC Community Development Unit. The evaluation framework was based on the Community Capacity Index (Bush, Dower & Mutch 2002), which assesses four areas of competence. This framework was suitably modified in collaboration with the Community Development Unit to reflect the Sunrise Health Service situation. The result was an evaluation that increased knowledge and capacity for the CHCs and Community Development Unit, in addition to evaluating the capacity of the CHCs to function in their designated role.