Health Consortium preparing to survey community health needs

The Hill County Health Consortium is getting ready to conduct the group’s 2019 Community Health Needs Assessment.

“We are currently collecting any data info from community partners that have completed their own surveys in the past year,” Blaine and Hill County Prevention Specialist Susan Brurud said. “The last survey we did in 2017 was a door-to-door survey, and we may follow that same format but that decision has not been made yet.”

She said that when the Community Health Needs Assessment was last taken, the community partners surveyed the Havre community then the county and combined this information with other data collected about the area. This was sent to the state, which provided the assessment on the area’s strengths and weaknesses.

“So we worked together as community partners and we looked at, maybe, some of the things that were already being addressed in our community and took the three (weaknesses) that we felt were the ones that are not currently being addressed that had the best potential for us to be able to make an impact,” she said. “That was dental health; healthy living, which came out of a need for obesity, especially youth, and the SAAM coalition — substance abuse and misuse.”

She added that the three groups, which meet either monthly or bimonthly, were formed within the consortium to focus on solutions for and awareness of these issues.

HELP Committee and Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line Executive Director Krista Solomon said the Community Health Needs Assessment is updated every three years.

“We look at our priorities and sometimes different committees evolve, like right now these are our three, but it hasn’t always been these three,” she said. “This new assessment is important for us to make sure the things we are doing are still the highest needs,” she said.

New groups could be formed based on what the latest needs assessment finds.

Northern Montana Hospital Regulatory and Community Services Vice President Christen Obresley said the Hill County Health Consortium is a group which brings together members that are involved in the health of the community and works to meet the needs of this population.

“The purpose is to have a collaborative group of people that are available to address the needs identified through evaluation, and to have partnerships that are already established for projects, grants and community health,” she said.

She said the Hill County Health Consortium originally started in 2004 because the group applied for a grant through U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration to get a demonstration project to start a federally qualified health center which is now Bullhook Community Health Center.

“The consortium has been a big player in the community and in improving the health of the community, and that was our original start. We’ve just continued to go forward and work on lots of worthy projects,” Obresley said.

The Early Childhood Investment Team is a branch of the consortium, as is the Local Advisory Council, Havre Trails and more, she added.

“From groups to bike racks, I mean we’ve done a lot of things very quietly in the community,” she said.

“I think (the consortium) is really important because it brings all of us together as a group where we can communicate and work together to build a big cohesive team, not just trying to do it individually,” Bullhook Community Health Center CEO Kyndra Hall said.

The next Hill County Health Consortium meeting is to be determined, Brurud said, and everyone is welcome to attend the meetings.