Community Health Needs Assessments & Implementation Plans
A Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) provides information that helps identify factors affecting our county, determine the 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 the Lenoir County Health Department, UNC Health Lenoir, 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 Lenoir County.
The CHNA serves as a goal tool that will assist in achieving three primary goals:
- To improve residents' 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 one where residents enjoy a high quality of life.
- To reduce health disparities among residents, demographic information, health status, and behavior data can be gathered to identify population segments 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 that have historically had a negative impact on residents' health.
- 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) and 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 Lenoir's efforts to structure programs and services to improve the community’s overall health and wellness while balancing UNC Health Lenoir's strategic priorities.