Want to weigh in on community health needs and care? Here's how

Public health departments, hospitals and community leaders in the Ozarks region are seeking input on the area's health needs and situations for the 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment.

Every three years, the Ozarks Health Commission — which covers 30 counties in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma — puts out a survey to better understand the state of the area's health care as well as the community's needs.

The OHC is asking the public to participate in a survey at ozarkshealthcommission.org/survey. The survey takes approximately 8-10 minutes to complete and is available in English and Spanish. According to the press release, individual personal information will not be shared or connected with your responses.

The survey asks about barriers to health care, mental health care access and health habits. The 2025 assessment will also take into account hospital and community data indicators as well as stakeholder feedback.

"The resulting CHNA will allow decision-makers to have a more holistic and up-to-date picture with which to strategically address community health concerns," the press release said.

What will happen after the CHNA is published?

After the assessment is completed and the results are presented, the Springfield-Greene County Health Department and local health care and mental health partners will develop strategies for the Community Health Improvement Plan. Strategies for the CHIP involve looking at already-existing programs and systems, identifying gaps and examining what initiatives have been successful in other communities.

More: Diabetes, substance use and mental health top list of Springfield's health priorities

What did the 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment say?

The 2022 CHNA identified three main areas of concern: Diabetes, substance use and mental health.

In 2022, the CHNA found that the rate of diabetes in Greene, Webster and Christian counties had increased by 30% since the 2019 assessment; that Springfield's rate of drug overdose deaths was higher than state and national rates; and that despite being in the top 10% of the United States when it comes to the rate of mental health care providers to patients, there are still significant access challenges.

Mental health had also been listed as a main area of concern in the 2019 CHNA.

What did the 2022 Community Health Improvement Plan say?

The CHIP identified four strategies to address the main areas of concern: Establish the Family Connects model, create an Overdose Fatality Review Board, become a trauma-informed community and implement a community information exchange.

Family Connects is an in-home visiting program available to all new parents in Springfield, which aims to reduce health disparities among children. The goal is to provide some extra support immediately after birth and then to connect families with other, longer-term resources in the area, if needed.

The Overdose Fatality Review Board reviews overdose cases and is meant to use community interventions to decrease drug overdose deaths, decrease drug misuse and nonfatal overdoses and to increase coordination and collaboration of services, response and prevention, according to the website.

More: Grant allows Springfield to double mental health co-responder staff, run program longer

Through program, policy and system changes, the SGCHD aims to make Springfield a trauma-informed community, which is a community that recognizes the impact trauma has on individuals as well as the community at large. According to the CHIP, a trauma-informed community often has improved mental health, safer neighborhoods, increased physical activity and more resiliency to adverse childhood experiences.

The community information exchange is a direct response to the CHNA's findings that health disparities and social determinants of health were impacting outcomes in the Springfield community. The strategy is a digital hub where people can access resources to improve their health and well-being, and the platform will also help SGCHD and community health workers to identify gaps in service.

Susan Szuch reports on health and food for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @szuchsm. Story idea? Email her at sszuch@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Health commission asks for public input on Ozarks community health