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Community Health Assessment now online


photo courtesy of W. Wright 

The key health concerns, conditions and experiences of county residents are now available online. Saint Paul – Ramsey County Public has published its Community Health Assessment with data and analysis of more than 120 health topics. 

Hearing residents’ first-hand experiences with health issues and getting feedback on the data the department collected was a central goal of Public Health in developing the assessment.  More than 2,100 individuals participated in a health concerns survey, and Public Health staff engaged the community at over 60 gathering spaces, meetings and cultural events. Knowing that people of color and American Indians are often proportionally under-represented in health assessments, Public Health designed the qualitative part of the assessment – a community health concerns survey -- to reach these communities as well as immigrant and refugee communities.  Findings and summary of themes from the community survey are reported by racial and cultural groups as well as by zip codes, whenever there were 50 or more responses. 

Public Health conducts the Community Health Assessment every five years to identify health conditions and needs of county residents by gathering and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data.

The assessment is used by Public Health, other county department and a variety of community partners and agencies to establish priorities, set goals and create plans relating to individual, family and community health.

The 124 health topics in the assessment are formatted into two-page, quick-read summaries that address why this issue is important, how Ramsey compares to other counties, racial disparities that exist and how the issue is being addressed. To help with navigation of all the data, the summaries are organized into 16 chapters:

Public Health values community voices and continues to seek input and feedback on the assessment. The public is invited to comment through online forms located on the Community Health Assessment web pages, or via email.  

Posted on Friday, July 26, 2019 - 10:37 a.m.