Kane County chooses health priorities for its next CHIP

Earlier this year, the Kane County Health Department, in collaboration with the five county hospitals and the INC Board, conducted a Community Health Assessment or "CHA."

This type of assessment has been done on a three-year cycle to identify major health concerns within the community.

Professional Research Consultants Inc., who did the CHA back in 2015, was again selected as the vendor to conduct the research which began in March.

PRC was chosen again primarily to provide consistency with the surveying, giving users the ability to easily compare data from the previous cycle.

The data collection consisted of just over 1,050 residents participating in a phone survey as well as 158 key informants completing an online survey.

Key informants or stakeholders are a mix of community leaders, healthcare providers and public health experts that have a particular knowledge about the health concerns and needs of Kane County.

Upon analysis, 12 health issues were identified as "areas of opportunity."

Those issues were: access to healthcare services; cancer; diabetes; heart disease & stroke; injury & violence; kidney disease; mental health; nutrition, physical activity & weight; oral health; potentially disabling conditions; substance abuse; and tobacco use.

On May 10, Professional Research Consultants, Inc. presented the Community Health Assessment to Kane County stakeholders.

Participants prioritized the list of health needs based on scope and severity, and the ability to impact the issue.

Results of the CHA are what steer the planning for the Community Health Improvement Plan or "CHIP."

The current three CHIP priorities are behavioral health, chronic disease, and income and education.

Three action teams to address these issues were born out of the previous CHA cycle and are in full swing today.

On May 21, the Kane Health Counts "CHIP" Executive Committee voted to continue with the current three priorities.

The Behavioral Health Action Team will address mental health and substance abuse, while the Chronic Disease Action Team will address nutrition, physical activity and weight.

It was determined that Income & Education should also remain a priority due to the CHA findings determining residents living at low incomes are especially more likely to experience "fair" or "poor" health.

To keep up with the latest updates to the plan, visit the Kane Health Counts website at www.kanehealthcounts.org or www.facebook.com/kanehealth.