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PUBLIC HEALTH TASK FORCE 2004: PRELIMINARY RECOMMENDATIONS <br />PUBLIC HEALTH IMPROVEMENT PLAN <br />13) Fund local health departments to assess and <br />document community health needs through <br />community partnerships. <br />Need Addressed /Rationale <br />Integral to pubic health is community health assessment (CHA) -a public health core function. CHA is <br />also a critical part of Accreditation of health agencies. Local health agencies are mandated to conduct a <br />collaborative, comprehensive CHA every four years that must include a review and analysis of <br />secondary and primary data and development of community action plans. Primary data collection is <br />key in engaging community members in the discussion and planning for community health <br />improvement. <br />However, there are NO state funds to support this critical function at either the state or local level. <br />Public Health in NC needs CHA to be funded that will support the CHA process at the local level. This <br />critical system will inform each county of its health status, provide information for planning both at the <br />local and state levels, support accountability and continuous quality improvement in public health, and <br />enable the local health agency to be accredited. Providing a uniform set of core questions for primary <br />data collection enables data to be compared across the state. <br />Infrastructure /Capacity Improvement <br />Implementation of this recommendation would: <br />=> Establish a uniform statewide process for community health assessment to be conducted on <br />a four -year cycle (Comprehensive Community Health Assessment) and updated annually <br />(State of the County Report). <br />=> Establish a core set of questions to be used for primary data collection statewide. Local <br />partnerships (Healthy Carolinians, Community -based Organizations and other health <br />agencies) may develop additional questions according to their needs. <br />=> Build the capacity of the state Office of Healthy Carolinians to support local community <br />assessment through local training, technical assistance, and report generation. <br />Budget:: FT Es <br />3 <br />$ 1,623,000 Community Health Assessment <br />State <br />. $ 75,000 state O Local: <br />• $ 1,548,000 local <br />• $ 441,000 Healthy Carolinians <br />• $ 225,000 state <br />• $ 216,000 local <br />