Lake County General Health District Releases Community Health Needs Assessment

The 2022 Lake County Community Health Needs Assessment is now available online, officials confirmed.

The Lake County General Health District and University Hospitals Lake Medical Centers recently collaborated to collect local, state, and national data to identify and assess health needs in Lake County to provide local agencies with information about the state and current health issues.

According to the district, the information helps develop a Community Health Improvement Plan – CHIP – by justifying how and where resources should be allocated to better meet Lake County’s needs.

Methods used to collect the data included using a survey of community residents, holding several focused community focus groups, and convening community stakeholder organizations for discussions on key topics.

The data was analyzed by Conduent Healthy Communities Institutea consulting firm specializing in population and community health solutions.

According to a press release, nine important health needs have been identified:

• Access to health care – having the opportunity to see a qualified health care provider within a reasonable time frame

• Built environment – ​​all the physical parts where we live and work, such as houses, buildings, streets, open spaces and infrastructure

• Cancer

• Chronic illness – conditions that last a year or more and require ongoing medical care, limit activities of daily living, or both

• Economic concerns

• Infectious disease

• Mental Health

• Substance use and misuse

• Unintentional injuries and accidents

In May, more than 50 Lake County community stakeholders came together to prioritize detailed health needs based on scope, severity, and capacity for impact.

Access to health care, chronic disease, and behavioral health (mental health and substance use and abuse) were selected as top priorities and will be included in the 2023-2025 Lake County CHIP.

Community leaders, local health care providers and nonprofits are now working together to identify health improvement strategies that can be implemented over the next three years, officials confirmed.

The release of the Lake County CHIP is scheduled for the end of 2022.

“On behalf of the Lake County General Health District, I want to express my sincere gratitude to all of our partners who actively participated in the evaluation,” said Lake County Health Commissioner Ron Graham. “Accomplishing such an important task would not have been possible without the expertise and experience that all participants brought to the table. »

The district will continually improve the assessment over the next three years and seek opportunities to share its findings with the community, he added.

To view the Lake County Community Health Needs Assessment, visit www.lcghd.org/reports/healthdata/.

For more information, contact Jessica Wakelee at 440-350-2939 or [email protected].

Comments are closed.