Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)

What is a JSNA?

A Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) provides an assessment of the current and future health and social care needs of the population. It is not just about illness, but also looks at wider factors that we know can influence how healthy we are such as how many of us smoke, what jobs we do and what housing we live in. These are known as the wider determinants of health.

Developed in collaboration between different Civil Service and Government departments, the Gibraltar Health Authority, UK Health Security Agency and charities, the JSNA is a dynamic process that will evolve over time.

What will the JSNA explore?

The JSNA will look broadly across a range of areas known as ‘health assets’.  These assets can be described as the collective resources that are available to individuals and communities to protect against negative health outcomes and promote health status.

These assets though may not always be consciously thought about or used by people. By exploring these however, the JSNA helps highlight the values and skills, knowledge, connections and potential in a community.

Assets like these have the potential to enhance both the quality and longevity of life.  The JSNA will help identify protective factors that support health and wellbeing through resources that promote the self-esteem and coping abilities of individuals and communities.

The emphasis is on the achieving a balance between meeting needs and nurturing the strengths and resources of people and communities that already exist.  It is not about seeking a replacement for investing in service improvement or attempting to address the structural causes of health inequalities.

We have significant community assets here in Gibraltar that make a considerable beneficial contribution to the way we live our lives. It is one of our key strengths and it is important we capture these assets in the JSNA to help strengthen capacity, connectedness and social capital. The JSNA will not necessarily provide the answers to the range of questions that the public and policy makers have. The purpose of a JSNA is to help shape and develop the questions that then may require further explanation.