ABSTRACT
The results show that, despite intensive dialogue between community and professionals, the understanding that professionals have regarding the community’s problems are mediated by their resource restrictions. This is not to dismiss professional judgment but rather to illustrate the complexities involved in sharing information and understanding needs. The Rapid Participatory Appraisal team did not feel that they could accept the community’s word totally, since there are issues that need further debate and their priorities cannot always be taken at face value. To illustrate this more fully, the community did not mention smoking cessation as an important issue for women’s health, although evidence-based healthcare suggests that stopping smoking has important benefits for women in particular. It would therefore be impossible both from a professional and government point of view to drop this as a key priority, so on-going debate with the community is vitally important.
