Health survey planned here

Answering health-related questions in an eight-minute phone survey will help Stutsman County providers plan public health policy and budgets for years to come, health officials say.

“We just want to really know what the community c a re s about,” said Tami Dillm a n , f i n a n c e manager at Central Valley Health District.

T he CVHD is coordinating the development process for a community health assessment (CHA) and community health improvement plan (CHIP), partnering with other health-related organizations.

That development process includes collating existing information as well as gathering new information, via a telephone survey.

The survey, conducted by Winkelman Consulting of Fargo, will be 40 questions long, and will take about six to eight minutes to complete.

The calls will begin March 19, and will continue until 400 people have responded. They will be made by people, not robots, and results will remain confidential.

Questions in the survey are health related, and will include 12 of the 13 topics in the categories of health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors and physical environment. An earlier survey already covered questions about tobacco, the 13th topic.

People surveyed will be asked about how concerned they are about certain health topics, and an open-ended question at the end of the survey will allow them to state anything they feel is important that wasn’t included in the rest of the survey questions.

“This is the key here, to hear from the people what their concerns are,” Dillman said.

Survey respondents will also be asked some demographic questions, such as age, income range, educational background and marital status.

Topics of the survey itself will include diet and exercise, alcohol use, unsafe sex, clinical care access and quality and more.

After the survey is complete, likely by April 1, Winkelman Consulting will compile the data produced and the CHA/CHIP process will continue with a meeting of health stakeholders in the community in May or June.

Eventually, officials hope the data and analysis will be used by many health organizations to guide policy and spending decisions.

Having information available that identifies community needs will also help local agencies capture grant money targeted toward those needs, Dillman added.

Schools, in particular, will be able to use the data to get grants, said Robin Iszler, unit administrator with Central Valley Health District.

“When you’re talking about health changes, from what we’ve learned, if you do not identify things the community cares about, there is much less success at achieving change,” Dillman said. “And part of our function as a local health department is to know the needs of the community, and meet the needs of the community.”

Anyone with questions about the survey or the CHA/CHIP process can email Dillman at CentralVal ley@CentralValleyHealth. org.

Sun reporter Kari Lucin can be

reached at 701-952-8453

or by email at

klucin@jamestownsun.com

Tags: local news, news, health