What is the Community Needs Health Assessment Survey and why do we have one? This month, I’ll try to answer those questions.
On the whole, St. Charles County is a healthy place to live, work, and play. We have excellent health care facilities, low incidence of communicable disease, and most people are well informed about health and wellness. Many organizations in the county, including the Department of Community Health and the Environment, work diligently to educate residents of our community about the issues we face. However, we need to gather data in order to determine what concerns are most important. We also need to identify issues where the facts are different from citizen perception. This will allow us to target information relating to those topics. Active citizen participation is critical. That’s where the Community Needs Health Assessment comes in.
The first edition of the Community Needs Health Assessment survey was distributed in local newspapers in the mid 1990’s. In 2000, the survey went online on our website, www.scchealth.org. Since then, thousands of St. Charles County residents have completed the questionnaire, helping to direct health policy in our community.
Earlier this month, the 2009 edition of the survey went live on our website. By putting the survey online, the data can be instantly tabulated, giving our department and its partners a near-real-time snapshot of community attitudes and practices related to health. This information is critical in responding to and anticipating the needs of our community.
By taking a few moments to complete the 2009 Community Needs Health Assessment, you can help in identifying and prioritizing health concerns in St. Charles County. You can help in identifying areas where health education is needed. The information gathered will assist our department and partners in reviewing our community’s health status and identifying unmet health needs. It will also help to provide much needed outreach and wellness programs in the area.
Our department is proud to once again host this survey in collaboration with Healthy Communities St. Charles County and other partners in our community. You can view the list of community partners on the survey page. It takes just a few minutes to complete the questionnaire. We ask that survey responders be at least 18 years of age and a resident of St. Charles County. All responses are kept anonymous. To take the survey, please go to www.scchealth.org/docs/ph/ph_docs/Survey/2009/index.cfm.