Community Health Assessment Survey Update
Western Health is providing an update on the Community Health Assessment Survey. The Assessment began in 2022 with a survey completed by 1172 residents throughout the region. Summary reports for the local Health Neighbourhoods and the region are now available on Western Health’s website. Western Health is extending appreciation to the residents who took the time to share their perspectives in the survey.
In the survey, respondents indicated their top five community concerns were related to cost of living, road quality, food security, emergency services, and chronic diseases. Overall comments indicated concerns with access to services such as physicians, nurses, and other health professionals; wait times for services; recruitment and retention of health care providers, and resources and supports for the senior population. The survey also demonstrated positive feedback including a high percentage of respondents indicating they have a primary care provider and were able to access the health care services they required within the past 12 months.
The information gathered from this survey provides an understanding of the current health status and needs of the residents in the Western region. As Western Health transitions to one provincial health authority, the results of the survey will be used to determine priorities, help plan programs and services, and inform future strategic planning.
For more information about the Community Health Assessment, visit Western Health’s website.
Backgrounder:
A Community Health Assessment (CHA) is a dynamic and on-going process undertaken to identify the strengths and needs of a community, and to establish its health and wellness priorities. CHAs provide information about local areas as well as contribute to a broader understanding of health and wellness in Newfoundland and Labrador. Western Health uses CHAs to help prioritize, plan and act on unmet community needs to improve the health of residents of the Western region.
Western Health’s CHA process uses a mixed methods approach to compile data on the community health needs and resources, which includes the collection of quantitative and qualitative data. The CHA process includes: gathering information about health and wellness (facts and opinions), collecting information about health and community resources (assets), evaluating the information to determine strengths, needs, and the community’s priorities, and building partnerships and strategizing together to address health and wellness needs using assets and resources within the community.
The Western Health CHA survey was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data from residents of the region about where they find health-related information, where they go for care, satisfaction with health care services, community concerns, satisfaction with health and wellness resources, and health behaviors. In partnership with the NL Statistics Agency, the CHA survey was distributed in July 2022 to randomly selected individuals residing in the Western region.
The Western region includes communities from Port aux Basques, southeast to Francois, northwest to Bartlett’s Harbour, and on the eastern boundary north to Jackson’s Arm. The region is divided into the following Health Neighbourhoods:
- Port Saunders
- Bonne Bay
- Humber Valley/White Bay
- Corner Brook/Bay of Islands
- Stephenville/Bay St. George
- Burgeo/Ramea
- Port aux Basques