A Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) is a systematic examination of the health status indicators for a given population that is used to identify key problems and assets in a community. El Dorado County Public Health Division conducts a CHNA every five years. The information provided by these assessments will help us determine what focus areas we will work on. Essential ingredients for a successful CHNA are community engagement and collaborative participation.
Public Health Accreditation requires a Community Health Assessment of the entire County that employs a variety of methods to include information from other assessments and engage the community and partners by hosting a number of community meetings throughout the county, distributing surveys, and conducting key informant interviews. This year, we teamed up with The El Dorado County Youth Commission and Access El Dorado for a “Health through My Eyes” (HTME) PhotoVoice Project. The HTME PhotoVoice project captured what youth believe contributes to good and poor health in our communities. The results have been incorporated in our Community Health Assessment (CHA). Click here to view the video results of this project.
The El Dorado County Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health (MCAH) program also conducts an assessment in collaboration with local entities who work with women of childbearing age and their children. Poor health indicators outlined in the Community Health Status Report, along with community partner input, help identify priority areas of focus. These areas of focus are then used to create action plans in the MCAH program and have been incorporated into our Community Health Improvement Plan. The areas of focus for the 2014 MCAH Needs Assessment were identified as substance use, mental health, domestic violence, and immunization coverage levels. The Community Health Status Report compares El Dorado County with the State. Bright spots (highlighted in Green) are where the County is doing significantly better than the State, have met Healthy People (HP) 2020 goals, or have improved over time. Areas for improvement (highlighted in Red) are the areas where the County has work to do.
Click here for the Community Health Assessment Guide.
Check out other available County assessments by clicking on the links below: