C

C

it is important to determine an educational approach when planning a nutrition education intervention to provide an overall strategic vision and general direction for all components of the nutrition education intervention. Your educational approach should address the needs of your target population, availability of resources, and any guidelines of the organization sponsoring the intervention.

D

Evaluations are important to conduct at the end of a group counseling session to understand how the group facilitator performed and how the participants received the intervention. Outcomes that can be evaluated include the facilitator's ability to warmly greet clients and show empathy, ability to use questions effectively, ability to provide a clear summary at the end of the session, and if group members appeared interested and engaged in discussions. Results gleaned from evaluations can be used to improve group counseling sessions and facilitator skills.

The first key in planning a nutrition intervention includes conducting a thorough needs assessment to understand an audience. This includes (1) assessing health needs, including disease prevalence, mortality rates, disability issues, and physical symptoms of the target audience through literature reviews , results of national and local surveys, and findings from epidemiological studies and health records; (2) assessing educational needs including an evaluation of knowledge, atti tudes, motivational level, self-efficacy, and skills of the target audience; (3) assessing resource needs including an evaluation of food availability, income, lifestyle factors, food prices, transportation resources, cook ing facilities, social support, and availability of food assistance programs; and assessing (4) developmental needs including an evaluation of intellectual, social, emotional, and physical development of the target audience. All of these factors need to be assessed to plan an ap propriate intervention.