2019 Community Health Improvement Plan (e-CHIP)- Polk County

Alignment

Mental Health and the related result are aligned with the following Healthy NC 2020 Focus Areas/ Objectives. 

• Mental Health 

Experience and Importance

How would we experience access to mental health resources in a timely and effective manner in our community?

Polk County's desire is to improve mental health within it's community. Mental health is not soley how a person thinks, feels, or behaves. A person's mental health can affect many aspects of their life including their ability to deal with stress, resilency levels, and their ability to build sustaining relationships. The desire for Polk County is to have a community full of members who have a zest for living, self-confident, a sense of contentment, and the ability to bouce back from adversity. We hope for community with readily available resources available that anyone can access stigma free. 

What information led to the selection of this health issue and related result?

Mental Health was selected because it affects many different areas of an individual’s wellbeing including their physical health. A healthy community encompasses all aspects of health and although much progress has been made in this area, many local leaders agree that much is still to be done. Supporting data of this health priority includes the percentage of adults reporting more than 7 days of poor mental health, dissatisfaction with life, opiate use and suicide rates.   As part of the Healthy North Carolina 2020 focus area for Mental Health, we will be using the objective to "Decrease the average number of poor mental health days among adults in the past 30 days" as an indicator for this priority area.

What Is It?

Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Training was identified by the community as an action, that when combined with other actions in our community, has a reasonable chance of making a difference in the number of residents who report they did not receive mental health care or counseling that was needed in the past year in our community. This is a new strategy in our community. Examples of gatekeeper trainings include QPR (Question, Persuade, and Refer), and ASIST.

The priority population for this strategy is low-income and/or geriatric populations, and the strategy aims to make a difference at the community, organizational, and individual levels. Implementation will take place within the community at various organizations who will benefit the most such as our first responders, Health and Human Service departments, homeless shelters, senior centers, and safety net organizations.  

One of the main focuses for this strategy is to eliminate the obstacles to optimal health that our priority populations may experience. By ensuring staff on the first line are adequately equipped to handle crisis, we are ensuring all community members are provided with the resources they need.  

Partners

Work Plan

Evaluation & Sustainability

Evaluation Plan:

We plan to evaluate the impact of this strategy through the use of Results-Based Accountability^TM to monitor specific performance measures. We will be monitoring How Much, How Well and/or Better Off Performance Measures. Our evaluation activities will be tracked in the Work Plan table, above. Impacts will be presented to key partners to discuss what is working and what is not working.

Sustainability Plan:

The following is our sustainability plan for this strategy: 

• Sustainability Component 1: Use program measures to ensure ongoing effectiveness and demonstrate success to key community stakeholders.
  • We will provide quarterly reports to key stakeholders to ensure successes are known. 
• Sustainability Component 2: Identify champions who strongly support our strategy.
  • As successes arise, we will use these as avenues to identify champions of our strategies to help build support among our community members and organizations.

What Is It?

Community Crisis Services Plan was identified by community leaders and members as an action, that when combined with other actions in our community, that has a reasonable chance of making a difference in mental health in our community. This is an ongoing program in our community.

Polk County feels it's necessary to review the current Community Crisis Services Plans in relation to involuntary commitments to ensure the community is making the biggest impact. Necessary improvements have been identified and will be the main objectives over the course of the next several years. Priority will focus on course of action when a patient in crisis is identified.

The priority population for this strategy are those who are struggling with mental health challenges at the highest rates including geriatric and low income populations, and this strategy aims to make a difference at the organizational/policy level. Implementation will take place in the community and at organizations that may experience a community crisis.

This strategy will also focus on mental health disparities. It is our goal for the new plan to help increase access for all Polk County residents.

Partners

Work Plan

Evaluation & Sustainability

Evaluation Plan:

We plan to evaluate the impact of this strategy through the use of Results-Based AccountabilityTM to monitor specific performance measures. We will be monitoring How Much, How Well and/or Better Off Performance Measures.  Our evaluation activities will be tracked in the Work Plan table, above. 

Sustainability Plan:

The following is our sustainability plan for this strategy: 

• Sustainability Component 1: Use performance measures to ensure ongoing effectiveness and demonstrate success to local government officials and other key stakeholders.
  • By tracking our progress through our performance measures, we will be able to provide evidence for sustaining our efforts to local government officials. We can provide evidence of our successes at County Commissioner Meetings and local forums.
• Sustainability Component 2: Communicate and engage diverse community leaders and organizations.
  • By engaging diverse community leaders such as our church leaders, we will be able increase community awareness and support for our efforts to identify champions to help sustain our efforts.

What Is It?

High Utilizer Community Group was identified by healthcare leaders and the Polk County Mental Health Advisory Committee as an action, that when combined with other actions in our community, that has a reasonable chance of making a difference in mental health in our community. This is a new program in our community.

The priority populations for this program are high utilizers of the current healthcare system, uninsured or under-insured, and low-income, and the program aims to make a difference at the individual, interpersonal, organizational, and policy level. Implementation will take place in local healthcare facilities. High utilizers are identified as those who need mental health services, but conditions may be hindered by complex physical, behavioral, and social needs which may not be served through the current fragmented healthcare system. By identifying this population, we will be able to engage them more effectively to meet their needs. Our community realizes that improving health requires more than clinical care, and successful interventions depend heavily on incorporation of social services and educational programs alongside of clinical care.

This strategy will focus on ensuring all community members have access to mental health resources. It will identify those who may not be receiving the adequate services needed and provide an avenue to ensure they begin receiving those services. This is a long-term program with planning for 5-10 years. By sustaining this community group, we will be able to continually evaluate the resource needs of our highest utilizers.

Partners

Work Plan

Evaluation & Sustainability

Evaluation Plan:

We plan to evaluate the impact of the High Utilizer Group through the use of Results-Based AccountabilityTM to monitor specific performance measures. We will be monitoring How Much, How Well and/or Better Off Performance Measures.  Our evaluation activities will be tracked in the Work Plan table, above. 

Sustainability Plan:

The following is our sustainability plan for the High Utilizer Group: 

• Sustainability Component: Use program performance measures to ensure ongoing effectiveness and demonstrate successes to key stakeholders.
  • Regular data reports to the High Utilizer Group will allow us to strengthen our support for involvement from key organizations.

Why Is This Important?

Much work has already been done to improve this priority including healthy food access, community gardens, "walkability" and "bikeability", and community plans to improve recreation areas. Regular physical activity among children and adults reduces the risk of many health issues including chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and obesity. Consistent exercise and the consumption of a healthy diet can lead to a host of benefits including better sleep, decreased depression risk, increased energy, happiness, health, and even a longer life. In order for us to make a dramatic difference in the way Polk County community members' look and feel, we believe it's crucial to have access to exercise and nutritional foods. 

Alignment

Healthy Eating and Active Living and the related result are aligned with the following Healthy NC 2020 Focus Areas/ Objectives. 

• Physical Activity and Nutrition

Experience and Importance

How would we experience increased access to healthy foods and exercise in our community?

Polk County's desire is to increase access to healthy foods and encourage more community members to lead active lifestyles. With this desired result, community members would experience better health outcomes allowing them to enjoy life to the fullest. All community members would have access to healthy, local foods provided by farmers markets and/or community gardens.

What information led to the selection of this health issue and related result?

Every three years, our community reflects on the current status of the community's health. This is a moment for key stakeholders to join forces and evaluate what is working and what areas need improvement. In September 2018, the community spent time understanding the data and uncovering what issues were most important to tackle. After presenting a list of key issues to tackle, our partners voted on which issues were their top areas of concern. This process, often called health issue prioritization, is an opportunity for various community stakeholders to agree on which health issues we can all tackle and make the most impact on our community's health. Nearly one-fifth (19.4%) of Polk County residents state they have experienced food insecurity and only 4.3% indication they are consuming five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Only 30% of Polk County residents meet recommended physical activity guidelines (WNC Healthy Impact Community Health Survey, 2018).   

Healthy Eating and Active Living also closely aligns with the Healthy NC 2020 focus area for Physical Activity and Nutrition. With our proposed strategies, we hope to help move the needle on the objective to increase the percentage of adults meeting CDC aerobic recommendations to the 2020 target of 60.6% (Healthy NC 2020, 2019).

What Is It?

Polk County FIT Challenge was identified by our Wellness Coalition as an action, that when combined with other actions in our community, that has a reasonable chance of making a difference in obesity levels in our community. This is an ongoing program in our community.

This is the third year that our community will focus on the Polk County FIT Challenge. This program has been extremely effective in encouraging community members to become active and live a healthy lifestyle. This year, we will focus on making the program simpler for community members to participate and propose strategies for them to stay active after the FIT Challenge is over. This program will also add nutritional education and guidance to accompany the active living component. The nutritional education and guidance will include a focus on raising awareness of local Farmers Markets' and the healthy options available. Increasing access and awareness to Farmers' Markets has been shown to have a positive impact on Physical Activity and Nutrition.

The priority populations for this program are seniors and youth, and the program aims to make a difference at the individual level. Implementation will take place in the community.

We hope this program will address the socioeconomic disparities associated with health. The FIT Challenge will provide free guidance for healthy eating and active living for all community members to address the poorer health outcomes that are often associated with lower socioeconomic population groups.

Partners

The partners for this program include:

Work Plan

Evaluation & Sustainability

Evaluation Plan:

We plan to evaluate the impact of the FIT Challenge through the use of Results-Based AccountabilityTM to monitor specific performance measures. We will be monitoring How Much, How Well and/or Better Off Performance Measures. Our evaluation activities will be tracked in the Work Plan table, above. 

Sustainability Plan:

The following is our sustainability plan for the FIT challenge: 

• Sustainability Component 1: Increase community awareness of event
  • By increasing our marketing efforts, we hope to increase awareness of the FIT challenge in the community to gain support for continuing the program in future years.
• Sustainability Component 2: Communicate and engage diverse community organizations.
  • We hope to improve participation within faith-based communities and schools to develop additional champions for the FIT Challenge. These champions will be able to communicate the value of this program to community leaders and potential funders.

What Is It?

Polk County Senior Games/Clinics was identified by community partners as an action, that when combined with other actions in our community, that has a reasonable chance of making a difference in obesity rates in our community. This is a new program in our community.

The priority population/customers for this program are our geriatric population, and the program aims to make a difference at the individual level. Implementation will take place within the community and at local organizations.

Polk County Senior Games/Clinics will provide a year-around health promotion and wellness education program that will be availiable to all seniors in Polk County. Polk County Senior Games/Clinics will include activities for both mental and physical health and promote physical activities within the workplace.  Evidence shows that promoting the adoption of physical activity in worksites, we can have a significant impact on Physical Activity and Nutrition. Local organizations like St Luke's Hospital will be supporting our efforts by encouraging their employees and team members to become involved with this program.

Partners

The partners for this program include:

Work Plan

Evaluation & Sustainability

Evaluation Plan:

We plan to evaluate the impact of Senior Games/Clinics through the use of Results-Based AccountabilityTM to monitor specific performance measures. We will be monitoring How Much, How Well and/or Better Off Performance Measures.  Our evaluation activities will be tracked in the Work Plan table, above. 

Sustainability Plan:

The following is our sustainability plan for this program: 

• Sustainability Component 1: Establishing a consistent financial base for the program
  • We plan to use program performance measures to demostrate success to local funders to ensure continued support.
• Sustainability Component 2: Increasing support within the senior population
  •  We plan to use our data to plan ongoing clinics to gain additional support within the geriatric community.

What Is It?

Polk County Smart Options was identified by community leaders as an action, that when combined with other actions in our community, has a reasonable chance of making a difference in Healthy Eating and Active Living in our community. This is a new program in our community.

Polk County Smart Options will be a policy for local restaurants to follow in order to identify healthy menu options that can be considered Polk County Smart Options. 

The priority population for this program is all Polk county residents, and the program aims to make a difference at the policy and environmental level. Implementation will take place in local restaurants and farmer's markets.

This program will increase access and knowledge around healthy food options available to community members. Increasing access to healthy food choices has shown to make significant impacts on the Physical Activity and Nutrition focus area.

Partners

The partners for this program include:

Work Plan

Evaluation & Sustainability

Evaluation Plan:

We plan to evaluate the impact of Polk County Smart Options program through the use of Results-Based AccountabilityTM to monitor specific performance measures. We will be monitoring How Much, How Well and/or Better Off Performance Measures. Our evaluation activities will be tracked in the Work Plan table, above. 

Sustainability Plan:

The following is our sustainability plan for this program: 

• Sustainability Component: Increase community awareness of program and demostrate successes
  • In order to ensure this program is successful, we will communicate the need for the program to raise awareness. By raising awareness, we hope other restaurants will join as community supporters and adopt the program.