Setting Priorities: SSCHC Priorities

SSCHC Priorities

After discussing the results of the assessment and coming to a consensus, the SSCHC partnership decided to target four Essential Public Health Service areas and goals for further development.

Monitor Health Status to Identify Community Health Problems
Goal: Population-Based Community Health Profile
Diagnose and Investigate Health Problems and Health Hazards in the Community
Goal: Planning For and Responding To Public Health Emergencies
Inform, Educate and Empower People About Health Issues
Goal: Health Education and Health Promotion
Develop Policies and Plans that Support Individual and Community Health Efforts
Goal: Community Health Improvement Process

Three of the chosen priority areas showed the greatest need according to the scores generated by the Local Public Health Assessment Tool [assessment results]. The SSCHC partnership agreed that these were the areas of greatest need. Partners also felt that these priorities met the agreed upon criteria: Improvements in each area positively improve health outcomes, are reasonably achievable and supported by the participant’s agency.

One of the priority areas chosen by SSCHC partners, Diagnose and Investigate Health Problems and Health Hazards received a relatively high score on the assessment tool. However, SSCHC partners felt that the need for local coordination between community emergency planning and response agencies, combined with a perceived need for public health-specific planning efforts, warranted the inclusion of this essential service as a public health priority for Southern Strafford County.