Kittitas County Public Health briefs Ellensburg council on CHA/CHIP priorities: access to care, behavioral health, children and families

Kittitas County Public Health officials presented the county's Community Health Assessment (CHA) and Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) to the Ellensburg City Council during a study session, saying the county will focus implementation over the next five years on access to care, behavioral health and children, youth and families.

"We lovingly refer to these as the CHA and the CHIP," said Mackenzie Carter, assessment coordinator at the Kittitas County Public Health Department, who gave an overview of the process and findings. Carter said the CHA synthesizes four distinct assessments — a community survey, two focus groups, a community health status assessment and a local public health system assessment — to produce a data-driven snapshot of community health.

The community survey, conducted in October 2022, captured 423 responses and two focus groups were held: one for Upper County residents and one for Spanish speakers, Carter said. The CHA report is dated 2022; Carter said the assessment took about two years to compile and the CHIP required another year of development.

Carter summarized the prioritization process: the team identified more than 100 indicators across clinical and environmental domains, created mind maps for…