Beyond Health encourages participation in new Community Health Assessment survey

BROWN COUNTY – Beyond Health, a local group of health agencies and organizations, is promoting a new community health survey.

Responses from the survey will be featured in the upcoming Community Health Assessment (CHA,) a report that will provide a snapshot of the community’s health and serve as the basis for determining future health priorities.

“The Beyond Health Community Health Assessment is our opportunity to survey and understand the health needs of the Brown County community,” said Anna Nick, Brown County Public Health officer and administrator. “The Community Health Assessment is critical because it helps us identify programs, services and where we can align our efforts to make the biggest impact to improve the health of those who live, work and learn in Brown County.”

“A Community Health Assessment is like a doctor’s checkup for the entire community,” said Chrystal Woller, health director/officer for the city of De Pere. “It helps identify our most important health needs so local organizations can make informed decisions about programs, services and resources.”

The priorities determined by the CHA will become the focus of a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP). These two documents work together in a cycle that Beyond Health updates every three years. 

“The Community Health Assessment is a planning tool used by local hospitals, health systems, public health agencies, and non-profits,” said Sharla Baenen, COO of Emplify Health by Bellin. “We can’t successfully improve health outcomes by making uninformed guesses.

We need to hear directly from the people who live, work, and learn in Brown County to make this work. Your feedback drives action.”

“In order to improve health in the community, it’s critical to understand those in the community and what it is that we need to work on,” Nick said. “The survey helps us to understand our most critical needs in Brown County that are impairing health so that we can, as a system, work together to improve health.”

Available in print or online, the survey is quick, confidential and available to anyone age 18 or older who lives, works or learns in Brown County.

“A few minutes of participation can shape our priorities for years,” said Kim Franzen, CEO of N.E.W. Community Clinic. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve lived here your entire life or just became our neighbor. Your perspective matters!”

“Health is informed by many factors — some are based on individual choices we make and some are based on the environment and the conditions that we live in,” Nick said. “It’s critical to get an understanding from everybody what they are experiencing and what they see as their health so that we get a good picture of what the community looks like. That helps us shape if we need to focus on a certain area where we determine that there are more needs than others or if we need to pivot and look at something else.”

The survey is available online at bit.ly/BrownCHASurvey. The URL is case sensitive.

Paper copies of the survey are available at all Brown County Library locations and Brown County Public Health’s Green Bay office (111 N. Jefferson St., Green Bay).

To learn more about Beyond Health, visit stayhealthybc.com.