BOH agenda 032316 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1 Background Introduction Every 3-4 years, Local Health Departments conduct a Community Health Assessment (CHA). Regular assessment of a community’s health enables local public health officials to monitor trends in health status, determine priorities among health issues, and determine the availability of resources within the community to best protect and promote the public’s health. A primary goal of the assessment process is to involve the community in every phase of the assessment, including planning, data collection, evaluation, identification of health issues and community strengths, and the development of strategies to address identified problems. The Assessment Process Four CHA teams were created to assist in the 2015 CHA process and included: 1) a CHA Leadership Team (CHALT), the governing body and final decision makers, 2) the Communication Team, 3) the Community Engagement Team, and 4) the Data Team. Community partners were key to the overall survey effort, including serving on CHALT, coordinating focus groups and publicizing the survey (see Appendix C: Team Members) Data Collection and Analysis This report was created using both primary (community input) and secondary (previously collected) data sources. Primary data was collected through community health opinion surveys (door-to-door and online), partner surveys, focus groups and community listening sessions. Using both primary and secondary data yields a more in-depth and reliable assessment of the specific factors that affect our community’s health. With the overall goal to address health disparities and identify needs of populations who are most disadvantaged, 799 survey households were randomly selected from census blocks, stratifying to ensure low-income communities were included. 279 addresses were attempted and 166 door-to-door surveys were completed, compared to 160 door-to-door surveys in 2011. New to this CHA, a health opinion survey was placed online and was completed by 1,548 community residents using a non-random, snowball approach of sharing the link with partner organizations and mailing lists. Combined, this created 1,714 total health opinion surveys answered. Attempts to recruit selected households and administration of surveys were carried out by a team of 86 volunteers over a course of three survey weekends (8 days) within two months. All volunteers participated in a mandatory training which covered safety plans and procedures for conducting surveys (e.g. techniques for conducting unbiased surveys, what to do if someone was not home or chose not to participate, procedures for non-English speaking residents, etc.). Volunteers conducted surveys in teams of two, and each team was assigned a specific