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314412
Assessing the health of a rural community: A community health assessment for Rush County, Indiana
Monday, November 17, 2014
Cynthia L. Stone, DrPH, RN
,
Department of Health Policy and Management, Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indianapolis, IN
Kristin Charles, MHA, MPH
,
IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indianapolis, IN
Jesus Rivera, JD, MPH
,
IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indianapolis, IN
Jessica Contreras-Gonzales, RN, MPH
,
IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indianapolis, IN
Rush County Health Department (RCHD) partnered with students from the Health Policy and Management Capstone course for a Community Health Assessment (CHA). Rush County is a rural county in Indiana with a population of approximately 17,000; it is the first county in Indiana to seek accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board. RCHD is now in the process of updating the original CHA from 2009, which was a prerequisite for the accreditation process. The CHA systematically reviews the health status of the population in order to identify key areas for improvement and community assets. Methods for the Rush County CHA included the CDC CHANGE Tool, key informant interviews, a community survey, and secondary data. Four prominent themes emerged: higher levels of tobacco use, higher county rates of obesity, higher rates of common chronic diseases such as lung cancer, diabetes and asthma, and a higher county rate of teenage pregnancy. Results from the CHANGE Tool, key informant interviews, and community surveys were corroborated with secondary data. The results of the CHA will help the health department and other community organizations plan and allocate resources to address these key issues facing the community. It was recommended that Rush County use the CDC CHANGE Tool on an annual basis to track some of these major issues (particularly tobacco use and physical activity). It was also recommended that secondary data for key indicators be tracked in an excel spreadsheet on an annual basis, to make updating the CHA easier in the future.
Learning Areas:
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related public policy
Learning Objectives:
Define community heath assessment.
Explain the role of the community health assessment in the accreditation process.
Describe the methods and processes that can be used to conduct a community health assessment in a rural community.
Identify the challenges and the successes of conducting a community health assessment in a rural community.
Keyword(s): Community Health Assessment, Rural Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I received my MPH in 2014 from the Fairbanks School of Public Health. Several of my courses covered community health assessments and I helped conduct the CHA for this project as part of a service learning course.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
