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Community health survey receiving responses

The time to provide input on Hill County's health-related concerns is half over.

The Community Health Assessment is an attempt by the Hill County Health Consortium to see what community members feel are the most important health issues.

"It's going to help narrow the community's focus on where we need to put our limited resources, " Danielle Golie, director of public health for the Hill County Health Department, said. The survey was released in the beginning of November and can be filled out until the end of the year.

It is available online, through a link on http://www.hillcountyhealth.com, or in paper form at nine places throughout Havre:

• East Clinic

• West Clinic

• Dr. Shelby's Office

• Bullhook Clinic

• Bullhook Dental

• Kostelecky Chiropractic

• Boys and Girls Club of the Hi-Line

• HRDC

• Hill County Health Department

The consortium hopes to get at least 400 responses before they start analyzing the answers at the beginning of 2011. Halfway through he collection period, there have been more than 200 responses now, so things are on track.

From those responses, the board will hold a strategic planning meeting to identify and address the three to five most pressing issues, as brought up in the surveys. The consortium wants to either start solutions to problems or help get word out about solutions that already exist and may not be known about. A similar survey was done about six years ago, Golie said. Though the questions were different then, the goal was the same. And the results of that survey brought several changes. Concerns about a lack of affordable health care led to grant applications drafted that led to the Bull-hook Clinic.

There was also concern about methamphetamine use, which led to several meth-related programs coming to the area. A lack of public transportation was also on people's minds then. Then Opportunity Link and the North Central Montana Transit system helped out with that.

Now the goal is to see what new concerns there are, and what can be done.

Golie thinks that a survey like this should be done every three to five years.

The time to provide input on Hill County's health-related concerns is half over.

The Community Health Assessment is an attempt by the Hill County Health Consortium to see what community members feel are the most important health issues.

"It's going to help narrow the community's focus on where we need to put our limited resources, " Danielle Golie, director of public health for the Hill County Health Department, said. The survey was released in the beginning of November and can be filled out until the end of the year.

It is available online, through a link on http://www.hillcountyhealth.com, or in paper form at nine places throughout Havre:

  • East Clinic
  • West Clinic
  • Dr. Shelby's Office
  • Bullhook Clinic
  • Bullhook Dental
  • Kostelecky Chiropractic
  • Boys and Girls Club of the Hi-Line
  • HRDC
  • Hill County Health Department

The consortium hopes to get at least 400 responses before they start analyzing the answers at the beginning of 2011. Halfway through he collection period, there have been more than 200 responses now, so things are on track.

From those responses, the board will hold a strategic planning meeting to identify and address the three to five most pressing issues, as brought up in the surveys. The consortium wants to either start solutions to problems or help get word out about solutions that already exist and may not be known about. A similar survey was done about six years ago, Golie said. Though the questions were different then, the goal was the same. And the results of that survey brought several changes. Concerns about a lack of affordable health care led to grant applications drafted that led to the Bull-hook Clinic.

There was also concern about methamphetamine use, which led to several meth-related programs coming to the area. A lack of public transportation was also on people's minds then. Then Opportunity Link and the North Central Montana Transit system helped out with that.

Now the goal is to see what new concerns there are, and what can be done.

Golie thinks that a survey like this should be done every three to five years.

 

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