This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
As part of a comprehensive community health assessment, mental health and housing were identified as the two issues impacting the health of Boulder County residents the most.
On Wednesday, November 15, 2017, Boulder County Public Health will host an open house where residents can learn how these issues are impacting health in Boulder County, share their ideas for solutions, and vote on which of these two issues they feel should be the top focus for the department and community partners for the next five years.
What: Vote on Boulder County Public Health area of health focus for next five years
When: Wednesday, November 15, 2017, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Where: St. Vrain Community Hub, 515 Coffman Street in Longmont or online at www.HealthyBoulderCounty.org.
Child care and Spanish-language interpretation will be provided.
“Our responsibility is to ensure that everyone in Boulder County has the opportunity to live a healthy life,” said Jeff Zayach, Boulder County Public Health executive director. “We invite all residents to cast their vote for the issue they feel most impacts their health.”
The community health assessment is an evidence-based approach designed to understand what the greatest health needs are and how public health can have the greatest impact to improve health. Through the process, information is gathered from multiple data sources to develop a deeper understanding of the community’s health and to focus on interventions.
Along with thorough analysis of demographic and health data, conversations with groups of residents – called community health conversations – were one part of the Boulder County Public Health 2017 Community Health Assessment. The goal of the conversations was to ensure that the community perspective was included, particularly from those experiencing barriers to health (i.e. health inequities).
Boulder County Public Health staff facilitated conversations with 53 groups (over 600 people) throughout the county. The groups represented populations that are facing barriers to health from various ages, races/ethnicities, income levels, and life experiences. In total, residents provided 3,021 ideas about things that could improve their health, marking 1,776 of these ideas as priorities, ranging from nutrition, to accessing health care, to racism. From the discussions, housing and mental health were identified as the top priorities.
Community health assessments are required to be conducted by all local public health agencies per the Colorado Public Health Act of 2008 (SB 08-194 CRS 25-1-501 et seq.) and the national Public Health Accreditation Board.
This is a public information release from Boulder County and published by the Longmont Observer as a public service.
