SIH spent the last 18 months surveying and analyzing the health needs of the communities they serve in southern Illinois to create their Community Health Needs Assessment. They announced their findings on Wednesday.
Every three years SIH looks at the health needs of the counties they serve. They conduct research and interviews to find the most pressing health issues of their communities. Once they complete that work they release the Community Health Needs Assessment outlining goals and action plans to tackle the concerns.
Dr. Matt Winkleman is a family care physician with SIH. He says this work will help residents and patients have more control over their health, "These are things that are affecting your family members, your coworkers, your employees. If we can do a better job of disease prevention and empowering patients to manage their chronic illnesses we'll have a healthier community. That allows people to enjoy the things they want to enjoy."
The report highlighted the three focus areas they're going to address. The first issue is providing access to care by focusing on patients with transportation.
Number two on the list is improving behavioral health by working to reduce the stigma of seeking mental health care, and providing access to services for mental health and substance misuse.
The third identified health issue is tackling chronic disease through prevention, management, and treatment.
Angie Bailey is the Director of Community Health for SIH. She led the work to complete this year's assessment, "It's something that we work with our community partners and SIH staff to really make a difference. We know we have so many health issues in southern Illinois, that it's going to take all of us working together."
Dr. Winkleman says this report serves as a guide to get the right help to individual patients and educate the community about the challenges they face, "This helps us understand how we help the providers in the work that they're doing one on one with their patients. How do we give them what they need to help their patients and identify interventions we could make in the community to help a patient before they reach the office."
The staff of SIH will continue to serve patients as they come into their facilities. But they say prevention will lead to better outcomes. This isn't something they can handle on their own. That's why they highlighted the work they've done in collaborating with community partners.
Toni Kay Wright with the Illinois extension office is one of those partners. She's seen the impact this collaboration can have on community health, "We have a lot of really good people doing really good things that work together. I think we're really fortunate in our area of the state because we find a way to be mutually beneficial with all of our organizations. We all bring a piece to the table and we celebrate everyone's success together."
A repeating theme in the reports was that the resources are available, but residents didn't know how to access them. Bailey says working together they're able to help people identify those available resources, "The more times someone can hear these points - from a friend, from a healthcare provider, the clinic you go to, or a faith community - if all those individuals can plant that little seed, that's really important to make change."
Now that they've released their research assessment, SIH will begin implementing their strategies to meet their established goals. One of the first projects is removing barriers to people getting the support and help that they need. They've already begun building a website with links and details on these available resources.
Community Health Needs Assessment - Report
SIH website with details: https://www.sih.net/giving-back/sih-in-the-community/community-benefit-programs/community-health-needs-assessment
