The Hunterdon County Health Partnership
The State of New Jersey mandates that each Health Department develop a strategy for improving the health and well-being of all the citizens under their umbrella of care.
The Hunterdon County Health Department, with help from grant funding (a major contributor- Merck Company Foundation), convened a collaborative assembly of the established “ Partnership of Health”. Their mission was to assess the quality of health in Hunterdon County and to use an entire collection of data to develop a Community Health Improvement Plan.
The steering members of the partnership are the Hunterdon County Department of Health and the Hunterdon Healthcare System. Thirty other community service providers were included in the partnership, one of which is the Readington Township Board of Health.
In the immediate future, this plan will be used as a guideline to focus our energies in the
direction of the most important needs. The goal will be to help our citizens reach an optimum state of health.
There were four steps taken to develop the Community Health Improvement Plan:
1. Two surveys were conducted in 2005. (Community Health Survey and Key Informant Survey)
2. 1000 or more, randomly chosen, Hunterdon County households were surveyed to determine the current picture of our county’s health. It sought statistical information regarding the key health indicators of the county (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey). This was compared to known trends from the past ten years. All were combined and analyzed by Holleran Consultants.
3. Partnership group sessions produced a matrix detailing the “forces” that affect our communities. This revealed a list of major concerns and factors that cause them.
4. Next the National Public Health Performance Survey was completed by 10 sub-committees of the Partnership. This was an assessment of the local public health system and evaluated all organizations and agencies that service the people of Hunterdon County.
The Hunterdon County Profile revealed five areas of concern. The top five Public Health issues revealed were:
a) Mental Health
b) Weight/Physical Activity
c) Cardiovascular Disease
d) Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco
e) Access to Healthcare
The members of the Partnership have now divided into five committees centered around the issues revealed by the previous investigation. Currently each group is developing a comprehensive plan of action to combat the difficult problems that are occurring in each
issue.
The entire Community Health Improvement Plan with detailed information on each of the five issues may be viewed at http://www.co.hunterdon.nj.us/health/partnership.htm.
There are copies available at the Readington Township Board of Health office in the Municipal Building. We will update our community periodically in future newsletters and on the website as the activities of the committees unfold.
