Jefferson County health leaders are looking for community feedback to help them plan programs and services for the next three years.
The Jefferson County Health Department, Comtrea, Mercy Hospital Jefferson in Crystal City, the Jefferson County Community Partnership and the Jefferson Franklin Community Action Corp. have teamed up to complete a community health needs assessment, which some of the agencies, like Comtrea and the hospital, are required to complete every three years.
Comtrea CEO Sue Curfman said the last time the assessment was completed was in 2018.
As part of the assessment the five groups currently are working on, they are asking Jefferson County residents to fill out a survey.
“The survey gives the Health Department and the other agencies involved a really good snapshot and data of what individuals and families in the county need and where the gaps in services may be, where our strengths are, and how we can work together to build some of those gaps,” said Jaclyn Brown, health network coordinator for the Health Department.
Brown said the survey is open until June 30, and she encourages everyone to take a few minutes to fill it out.
“Every voice is incredibly important,” she said. “Every opinion matters.”
Curfman also urges residents to complete the survey.
“We have a great county, but the only reason it’s great is because we’re in touch with our residents,” she said. “We want to know what are your needs. What are the barriers? What are your fears? What keeps you at home? If we can hear that, then we can tailor the services we provide to meet their needs to keep them safe and to keep them healthy.”
Alicia Evans, Mercy Jefferson manager of community health and access, said the survey is completely anonymous.
“If you want to see some change, especially towards the health needs of our community, I really encourage everyone to just take 10 to 15 minutes to fill it out. It is pretty short,” she said.
The survey can be found at surveymonkey.com/r/CHNAstl.
Curfman said the needs assessment not only helps the organizations plan for the next three years but also how to work together to make sure all needs are covered. She said it also helps the agencies avoid “duplication of resources.”
Next step
After June 30, the survey will close and the group of five health agencies will hold several focus groups, both in-person and virtually. Brown said no dates or locations have been set for any of the focus groups yet. “We anticipate late summer, early fall for those to be happening,” she said.
Evans said anyone interested in taking part in the focus groups may email her at alicia.evans@mercy.net for more information.
Curfman said once the focus groups have been completed, a data review will start and last six to eight weeks.
“(The data review) goes through three levels of review to make sure the data is purely objective and is appropriately analyzed,” she said.
After the data review, Mercy Jefferson will create a “shell report,” and then each agency will take that and create their own report.
Curfman said final reports will be 75 to 80 pages long and published sometime in March 2022. The public will be able to view the reports once they’re published.