Vision Statement

The 2023-2024 Guilford County Community Health Assessment (CHA) collects, analyzes, and shares meaningful data with community members and partners to empower collective action to support systems, policies, and practices that promote health equity for all members of our Guilford County communities.

Leadership

Differing CHA and community health needs assessment timelines with past hospital assessment partners, along with the impact of COVID-19 on Public Health staffing, necessitated a different leadership approach from the 2019 CHA. The Guilford County Division of Public Health (GCDPH) formed an expanded internal Assessment Design and Implementation Team to guide the 2023-2024 CHA process and rebuild community connections disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Guided by Laura Mrosla and Mark Smith, who both have over 25 years of CHA experience in Guilford County, this Team includes experienced and new public health staff and student interns:

Assessment Design and Implementation Team

Alexis Powell, MPH, Community Health Educator II

Amanda Clark, MPH, Drug and Injury Prevention Manager

Anita Ramachandran, MHA, MBA, Interim Health Director

Chantelle McChristian, Public Health Business Intelligence Analyst

Dennis M. Jenkins, Sr., Health Education Division Director

Elisven (Eli) Saavedra Villatoro, PMP, MS, RDN, LDN, Guilford County-NC Cooperative Extension

Kaleigh Rhodes, Community Health Educator II

Laura Mrosla, MPH, MSW, Community Health Educator

Mark H. Smith, Ph.D., Epidemiology Consultant

Rebecca Oakes, MPH, Community Health Educator

Rimple Patel, MPH, Epidemiologist

John Wallace, Ph.D., UNC Institute for Public Health

Matt Simon, MA, GISP, Spatial Data Consulting

Albar Arvizu, University of North Carolina at Greensboro MPH Intern

Natalya Tweedy, East Carolina University MPH Intern

Hannah Phillips, MPH Intern

Partnerships/Collaborations  

Over 360 community members kindly shared their time and insights in the 2023 Guilford County Community Health Survey. Representatives from 37 community organizations and over 22 community volunteers collaborated with over 45 dedicated staff to play a role in this assessment’s success. Community organizations included local collaboratives, funders, hospital and health related organizations, government, behavioral health providers, and local education and academic institutions.

Involvement and support included providing input into survey tool development, conducting surveys, sharing information about CHA data collection efforts, reviewing primary and secondary data, and attending community meetings to provide insights on community assets and challenges. These contributions add to the richness of information gathered and lay the groundwork for future collaborative efforts.

Regional/Contracted Services

GCDPH contracted with the North Carolina Institute for Public Health (NCIPH) to support the primary data collection through community survey sample selection, assisting with staff and volunteer training, data collection and analysis. NCIPH subcontracted with Spatial Data Consulting. NCIPH is a part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Health.

Theoretical Framework/Model

In previous assessments Guilford utilized the County Health Rankings Model of Health to organize and frame the assessment of health metrics. Because this model recognizes that 50% of variation in health outcomes is due to Social and Economic Factors (40%) and the Physical Environment (10%), a greater focus on the social drivers of health is warranted; therefore, the Healthy People 2030 Social Determinants of Health framework also informed the 2023-2024 CHA process. The assessment is also broadly situated in the social-ecological model, recognizing the need to look upstream to identify root causes and effective solutions collectively.

Collaborative Process Summary

CHA planning began in early 2023, building on prior discussions about adding to the existing body of knowledge and learning more about the impact of social drivers of health and historic and persistent disparities. After collecting and synthesizing secondary data and primary survey data in 2023, these data were analyzed in winter of 2023/2024. At community meetings held in High Point and Greensboro in June of 2024, participants weighed in on their assessment of community issues through a “penny for your thoughts” exercise, a discussion of community assets, and through a partner and community opinion questionnaires. In July 2024, the CHA Assessment Design and Implementation Team triangulated findings from the secondary data, the 2023 Guilford County Community Health Survey, community meetings, and community opinion survey rankings in the context of previous CHA priorities to determine the health priorities for the 2023-2024 Guilford County Community Health Assessment.

Guilford County Priority Health Issues and Key Findings

After triangulating reviewing data from a variety of local, state, and national sources, the Guilford County Division of Public Health prioritized the following Health Priorities:

• Firearm (Gun) Violence Prevention
• HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)
• Behavioral Health - Drug Overdose and Mental Health  
• Healthy Eating and Active Living
• Maternal and Child Health
• Access to Health Care

It is important to acknowledge that Social Determinants of Health influence health outcomes in each of these priority areas. Social determinants of health (SDOH) are “the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age” (Healthy People 2030). These social conditions have led to significant health inequities and must be addressed to improve health outcomes and ensure all Guilford County community members have an opportunity to achieve their best health.

Next Steps – Share, Plan, Elevate, Gather 

Next steps in the CHA process include:

• Sharing the CHA findings and the top identified needs to community partners, organizations, government bodies, and the public with the help of community partners,
• Developing community health improvement plans (CHIPs) for at least two health priorities,
• Elevating both the CHA and CHIPs using Clear Impact Community Health Improvement Scorecard, and
• Continuing to gather community input through the Guilford County cohort and community conversations.

To read the full report, go to Our Community. Our Health. 2023-2024 Guilford County Community Health Assessment. 

2023-2024 Guilford County Health Priorities

• Firearm (Gun) Violence and Injury
• HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)
• Behavioral Health: Drug Overdose and Mental Health
• Healthy Eating and Active Living
• Maternal and Child Health: Infant Mortality
• Access to Health Care

Social Determinants of Health influence health outcomes in each of these priority areas. These social drivers have led to significant health inequities and must be addressed to improve health outcomes and ensure all Guilford County community members have an opportunity to achieve their best health.

CDC’s Five Key Social Determinants of Health (CDC, 2024)