By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Mosaic health officials hope a community survey will help them assess some of the biggest health needs in the community.
Coordinator of Community Health Marcy George says while the survey is put out every three years as a IRS requirement, there is one more big reason the survey is useful.
"We also do it because it's a really good way of making sure that we are aligning with the community, that we are directing our time and our resources towards the issues, the health issues, that our community thinks are important," George tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
The survey can be found online (we have a link below) and will wrap up next week.
George says once all the results are compiled, they will be sent off to an unbiased third party.
"Because that's best practice with the CHNA," George says. "So that we just don't select the health needs that we think are important, it's all done without any bias by a third party."
The third party will also reach out to key stakeholders, which are people that work with community health, such as Catholic Charities and Pivotal Point Transitional Housing.
George says once Mosaic gets that analysis back, it's pretty easy to assess the biggest needs
"You can tell by the survey results what most people think that those are, there always seem to be three that rise to the top from this assessment," George says. "For example, mental health is always in our top three, so I would be very surprised if mental health was not one of the top three once we get all the data back."
The survey is conducted every three years, a requirement of the Affordable Care Act. Results from the last survey showed some of the biggest needs were mental health, substance abuse, and access to care particularly for those in poverty
If you are interested in taking the survey you can click HERE and you can find out more information about the Community Health Needs Assessment HERE.