CHNA 18 recently completed a Community Health Needs Assessment. This comprehensive look at the health needs and priorities in our nine cities and towns offers a rich data source as well as suggestions for ways communities might address the major health issues in their areas.
The CHNA Steering Committee used the results from the assessment to develop a 3-5 year plan for CHNA activities and funding, as well as to identify priority health issues for the nine cities and towns in CHNA 18 that would be the focus of the plan.
The priority health areas are:
Mental Health
o Access to care (for all populations)
o Destigmatizing
o Focus on mental wellness
o Leading to a decrease in substance use, particularly by youth and elders
Mobility and Transportation (bikes, cars, walking, buses, private transportation…)
o Access to services
o Safety of transportation (traffic etc.)
o Opportunities for active living
o Access to healthy food
Additionally, the CHNA agreed to focus efforts on the elderly and youth, including collecting more data about these populations if possible.
Click here to see the plan developed by the CHNA (still in draft).
In order to complete Phase I of the needs assessment, a secondary data analysis was performed, and along with the methods of the analysis, selected results were presented in the Needs Assessment Report. However, a lot of data was collected that did not make it into the report. Presented here is all of the data collected and analyzed during Phase I of the needs assessment.
