Clark County Health Department Asking for Your Input Regarding Community and County Health
Sunday, August 5th, 2018 -- 10:58 AM
-The Clark County Health Department is asking for your input regarding health in your community.I spoke with Rebecca Rosandick, Health Educator/Public Health Specialist, and she explained what a Community Health Assessment is.
“First, I think I’ll explain exactly what a Community Health Assessment is. It’s actually a process and it’s used by hospitals, public health departments and other agencies and it helps identify key community health concerns. These health concerns can be anything from access issues (access to food or transportation), water quality, crime, anything that you can relate back to public health. And then, by law, any hospital that is considered a non-profit is required to conduct and complete one of these Community Health Assessments every three years. It has been three years since the last Clark County Health Assessment was done, so now it’s time to repeat the process again and that’s what we’re trying to do this year.”
“So over the last two months, representatives from Ascension Our Lady of Victory Hospital, Memorial Medical Center, the Clark County Health Department, the Family Health Center Dental Clinic and Marshfield Clinic Health System have all come together to create a short survey.”
Rebecca provided more detail on the topics that can be found on the survey.
“It’s anything relating to health. So we want to know what are our residents and what are Clark County community members biggest health concerns are. What impacts their health on a daily basis? How can we help them improve their quality of life?”
“Programs that we create, even at the Health Department or at hospitals, they’re useless if we don’t know what we’re targeting. So, the purpose of the survey is to hear from our Clark County residents and communities. We need their input on what’s important to them. When we know this information, we can then take the next step and create meaningful programs.”
“So, the three main questions that this Community Health Survey asks are what are the three greatest areas needing improvement in your community; what are the three greatest strengths of your community; and what are the three issues that concern you the most about the overall health of people in your community? And then for each of these questions, it’s multiple choice or fill in the bubble, there are several options to choose from. We just want people to select three of them.”
“So, respondents have a wide variety and some of their options might be lack of access to affordable, healthy food; age related concerns like health or vision loss, hearing loss; obesity; poor oral health; tobacco use; mental health; etc, etc.”
There are a few ways you can take this survey.
“So, we do have hard copies and then we do have a Survey Monkey site available. The hard copies can be found at Clark County hospitals, food pantries, dental offices and the Clark County Courthouse here in Neillsville within the Social Services, Community Services, Aging and Disability Resource Center and Health Department.”
“We do hope to have this survey done and get responses back by August 13th. I am planning to go up to the Clark County Fair, I know that’s right before our survey closes, but I’ll be hanging out in the parking lot. If you happen to see me, please come and I’d be more than happy to give out a survey. And then it’s also on the Clark County Health Department website. So, if you go and type in Clark County, Wisconsin, and then if you look in the left hand pane, you’ll see an option that sees Community Health Needs Assessment, that is the survey we would like you to take and that will take you right to the Survey Monkey website.”
This survey is anonymous.
“Even the online version, we don’t do any sort of tracking. Nothing. For the hard copies we don’t ask for a name, we don’t ask for a name online either, so nothing that can identify who’s completing the survey. We do ask for basic demographics, but if people choose not to provide that information, that is totally fine. You can skip right past those questions.”
Rebecca ended our interview by stating the Clark County Health Department will let people know the results of the survey.
“I’d be more than happy to do another interview when we do get the results. I think community members would be curious to know what other people said concerned them regarding health and their health needs. I think we owe it to the community and to Clark County residents to report back on what we’re collecting."
One again, there are hardy copies of the survey available at various locations. You can also find the survey online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ClarkCoWI. The Clark County Health Department asks that you take a moment to provide your opinion regarding health in Clark County and your community.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.