Springfield-Greene County Health, CoxHealth and Mercy Springfield released the 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment and the priority health issues of Greene, Christian and Webster Counties at today’s Roots & Branches event.
The Community Health Needs Assessment is created using health care, public health and community input data to assess the health issues in the southwest Missouri region. This resource will be used to create plans and secure resources to address the top three identified health issues in the community: mental health, substance use and recovery and diabetes. Leaders from health care, public health, local government, nonprofit sector and business sector were in attendance for the release of the health assessment and heard more about these issues.
At the event, Director of Health Katie Towns stated, “As we continue to see low COVID-19 numbers, less severe illness and fewer hospitalizations we can look for some silver linings from the past few years. In other communities, leadership became fragmented and broke down under the pressure of the pandemic, but not here. As things got difficult, our leadership came together to do what was necessary to save lives. We have taken lessons away from the response that allows us to realign priorities when necessary and to be flexible and adapt to changing circumstances. Now, we can get back to many of the other needs in our communities, and preview where our focus will lie over the next three years.”
The 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment is available online at ozarkshealthcommission.org. Springfield-Greene County Health, CoxHealth and Mercy Springfield will be utilizing this resource to create Community Health Improvement Plans to address these issues. The Health Department’s will be released later this year, once it is approved by the Healthy Living Alliance advisory board, to establish goals for the next three years.
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Media may contact the Health Department PIO Team by call or text at 417-380-2556 or email at [email protected].
Springfield-Greene County Health Department
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