Community Health Needs Assessment
A Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) provides information that helps to identify factors affecting our county, determine resources needed to address these factors and develop a plan of action to address community needs.
Performed every three to four years, through a collaborative process between Wake County Health and Human Services, local hospitals, and other non-profit, government, education, faith-based, and business organizations, the CHNA is a systematic, data-driven approach to determining the health status, behaviors and needs of residents in Wake County.
The CHNA serves as a goal tool that will assist in achieving three basic goals:
- To improve resident’s health status, increase their life spans, and elevate their overall quality of life. A healthy community is not only one where residents suffer little from physical and mental illness, but also on where residents enjoy a high quality of life.
- To reduce the health disparities among residents. By gathering demographic information along with health status and behavior data, it’s possible to identify population segments that are most at-risk for various diseases and injuries. Intervention plans aimed at targeting these individuals may then be developed to combat some of the socio-economic factors which have historically had a negative impact on resident’s health.
- To increase accessibility to preventative services for all community residents. More accessible preventive services will prove beneficial in accomplishing the first goal (improving health status, increasing life spans, and elevating the quality of life), as well as lowering the cost associated with caring for late-stage diseases resulting from a lack of preventive care.
Information collected from the CHNA will guide UNC Health Rex's efforts to structure programs and services with the goal of improving the community’s overall health and wellness, while balancing the UNC Health Rex strategic priorities.
