Achieve Healthy EscaRosa health survey aims to reach 2,000 people
Achieve Healthy EscaRosa — a group of local hospitals, health departments and nonprofits, along with the University of West Florida — has set out to better understand the health needs of all residents in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, including those whose voices are often underrepresented.
The organization is undergoing the community input phase of its needs assessment process, which it updates every three years. This year, organizers are making an effort to reach more people and more diverse populations with the residents’ survey than ever before.
“That’s important because we want to make sure that we are improving quality of life for all and designing solutions together as partners that really focus on sub-populations and sub-geographies of our community,” said Jennifer Grove, vice president of external relations for Baptist Health Care and chairwoman of Achieve Healthy EscaRosa.
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Achieve Healthy EscaRosa is tasked with aligning resources within the community to help improve health outcomes for Escambia and Santa Rosa residents. This year, it’s tasked with developing the needs assessment, which is required for nonprofit hospitals and health departments.
The group is hoping to get more diverse respondents this year by partnering with other organizations like the NAACP and the Gulf Coast Minority Chamber of Commerce to help get the word out about the survey. Grove said Achieve Healthy EscaRosa also has began encouraging responses at COVID-19 vaccine clinics while patients are under their 15-minute observation period.
“There has been a disproportionate impact to communities of color in the pandemic and we really want to make sure that we are providing opportunities for the voice of communities that are disproportionately impacted by things like pandemics and many other challenges in our community,” Grove said.
To access the survey, residents of Escambia or Santa Rosa counties can go to uwf.edu/residentCHNA or pick up a paper copy at a local health department. The survey will remain open through June 18 and will be anonymous.
Grove said Achieve Healthy EscaRosa will be checking in to ensure all types of demographics are turning in surveys before the deadline. If they see a gap in the data, they’ll reach out to community partners connected with that given community to ask for help in responding.
For example, Grove said she plans to reach out to the Area Housing Coalition to request the survey be sent out to residents in its facilities.
In all, Achieve Healthy EscaRosa has a goal of receiving 2,000 responses. In its last community input survey, the group received 1,300 responses.
The survey asks plenty of questions about social determinants of health because health care facilities play only a small role in the overall health of the community, Grove said.
That’s why survey takers can expect to see questions about their sense of belonging or their feelings on race relations in the community. If they don’t access health care, it’ll ask what’s causing them not to, such as a lack of trust or transportation.
“We’re trying to get a little more granular in understanding some of the whys behind what’s happening in our community. The reason we’re doing that is the pandemic has absolutely highlighted inequities in access and outcome in health care and in a variety of metrics,” Grove said.
The residents’ survey results will be coupled with a community leader survey and a data dashboard focused on equity in such areas as education, health and well-being, as well as the economy and workforce. Grove said that dashboard will dissect every data point to identify any disproportionate results by race, gender, geography and other demographics.
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Once that information is analyzed by UWF’s Haas Center, Achieve Healthy EscaRosa will choose about three to five priority issues to focus on in the near future. After some public input this fall, those will become the final piece to the needs assessment, which likely will be published in January.
“Our goal really is to pick something that we all care about and think we can actually make some improvements in, align our resources in that direction and get to work to improve the quality of life for our community,” Grove said.
Once the needs assessment is complete, Achieve Healthy EscaRosa will start in on a community health improvement plan using the needs assessment information.
“The Community Health Needs Assessment allows us to hear directly from members of our community about what they need most, but we must also demonstrate that we are listening by providing our patients with the care they need, when and where they need it,” said Adrienne Maygarden, service line director for women’s and children’s services at Ascension Sacred Heart and vice chairwoman of Achieve Healthy EscaRosa, in a statement.
Madison Arnold can be reached at [email protected] and 850-435-8522.
