By Barbara Mitchell

The Public Health Accreditation Board defines community health assessment as a systematic examination of the health status indicators for a given population that is used to identify key problems and assets in a community.

The ultimate goal of a community health assessment is to develop strategies to address the community’s health needs and identified issues. The essential ingredients are community engagement and collaborative participation.

As part of Johnson County Department of Health and Environment’s mission of promoting and protecting the health and environment of all residents, the department assesses the community’s health every three to five years. JCDHE and its partners are currently conducting this assessment, it is expected to be completed by fall 2023.

JCDHE and its community partners are collecting data
on health and well-being in multiple ways:

• qualitative data collection through focus groups and one on one interviews with residents likely to experience health disparities
• primary quantitative data collection through a community-wide assessment survey disseminated in both English and Spanish
• secondary quantitative data collection from national, state and local sources

Community members and organizations are critical partners in this process – during the planning, data collection and analysis.

After collection, data will be analyzed and reviewed to better understand health issues and needs. This data will be used as the foundation for the next Community Health Improvement Plan to be finalized in 2025.

Share your views on our community’s health by completing a short questionnaire at tinyurl.com/JoCoCHA23.

Multiple people from the same household can complete the survey.

As a thank you for participating, if you provide your email address at the end of the survey, you will be placed in the running for a $100 gift card. However, you may also complete the survey anonymously.

Barbara Mitchell is Community Health Division director at the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment.