Public Health and Human Services releases 2018 Community Health Assessment

(COLUMBIA, MO) - The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services (PHHS) recently released the 2018 Columbia/Boone County Community Health Assessment. PHHS works with local organizations to publish the document every five years to provide data to community partners for their own planning purposes. The process also includes gathering feedback from residents to determine the desires of the community.

"Producing this document creates an opportunity for us to deliver better public health by using hard data and hearing from the community we serve to learn what their needs and priorities are," PHHS Director Stephanie Browning said.

PHHS has spent the last year revitalizing community partnerships and reassessing the needs of Boone County. The Community Health Assessment shares the results through all phases of the process and identified four strategic issue areas: mental health; basic needs; medical and dental; and safe, healthy and affordable housing.

"The Boone County Community Services Department benefits from the robust process used to develop the Community Health Assessment. Combining data with community feedback helps us prioritize our funding efforts to tackle issues that not only the data shows us are areas of need but also the community is telling us are areas of need," Boone County Community Services Department Director Kelly Wallis said. "As a partner in this effort, I’m looking forward to implementing new strategies to improve the well-being of our community."

The Community Health Assessment can be viewed online at CoMo.gov/Health/About-Us/Reports.