Skagit County’s community health assessment advances; newborn outreach pilot links nearly 400 families to services

Skagit County public-health officials updated the Board of Health on April 15 about a community health assessment (CHA) refresh focused on health equity and youth, and they reported early results from a Help Me Grow newborn outreach pilot that began in May 2024 and has connected families before hospital discharge.

Kristin Ekstrand, who represents the Population Health Trust’s public-health work, said the 2025 CHA is a refresh of the 2020 assessment and emphasizes disaggregated data to center health equity for populations including youth, Hispanic/Latino residents, LGBTQ+ and migrant communities. “We are looking at disaggregated data in any way and any place that we can,” Ekstrand said.

Ekstrand described a multi-step process: updating a scorecard of key indicators; incorporating recent community assessments (for example, the PeaceHealth community health needs assessment); identifying data gaps; conducting qualitative work (focus groups and interviews); and testing interpretations with community members. Staff said they are reviewing roughly 50 indicators, including measures tied to first thousand days, opioids, housing and food security.

Public-health staff described a targeted qualitative and quantitative…