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Caldwell County health staff outline priorities after community health assessment
Summary
Staff presented a community health assessment showing mental health and substance use, transportation and cost-of-living as the top priorities; focus groups and nearly 400 surveys informed a fall community health improvement plan focused on outreach and service access.
Bridal Flanagan, a presenter for the Caldwell County Health Department, presented the county's recently completed community health assessment and the priorities the department will carry into a community health improvement plan this fall.
"A community health assessment, or CHA for short, is a process in which we collect various types of data to understand the health status of a community," Bridal Flanagan said, describing a mix of surveys, five focus groups and review of secondary data used to identify local needs.
Flanagan told the board the top three challenges identified were "substance use, homelessness, and mental health," and that residents ranked the most-needed services as "affordable housing, mental health, and substance use support." She said the department gathered feedback from seniors, teen parents, limited-resource populations, Spanish-speaking residents (including partners such as Helping Hands), and county employees.
Board members asked about the scale and representativeness of the data. Flanagan said the department conducted broad outreach and that "I believe it was just under 400" survey completions countywide; she added that the team convened focus groups with seniors, a nutrition group for older adults, Helping Hands for Spanish-speaking residents, adolescent-health partners for teens and the soup kitchen for limited-resource populations.
One board member noted a county program that recently restarted and estimated the county invests about $800,000 annually in peer-support services; the member urged staff to ensure publicity so residents know services exist. Flanagan and other staff agreed targeted outreach to the groups identified in the focus groups would be a priority for the CHIP.
The department said the CHA cycle runs every four years and that the community health improvement plan will be developed with community partners in the fall. Staff emphasized improving awareness and access to existing services as an immediate implementation priority.
Next steps include refining outreach plans, coordinating with community partners named during the focus groups, and using the CHA findings to shape program planning for the year ahead.
