HJBR Jan/Feb 2022

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE I  JAN / FEB 2022 47 BUREAU OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS Why are the State HealthAssessment and the State Health Improvement Plan so import- ant? CAIN The Louisiana Department of Health created the State Health Assessment to educate folks on the overall health status of Louisianans in one package. The State Health Assessment paints a picture of the health of Louisianans, so we can have an overview of what the biggest health issues are across the state and, importantly, what health inequities are present. When you are looking at health issues, you need to look at not just overall rates, but you also need to dig a little deeper and look at situations where some groups are more heavily af- fected by certain health conditions or soci- etal conditions than other groups. You can view it at www.LouisianaSHA.com . The State Health Improvement Plan will be a strategic plan for our communities based on the data from the State Health Assessment and based on what community members perceive to be the largest threats to their health. The State Health Improve- ment Plan is meant to be a shared plan, because these health issues that Louisiana faces are huge. State agencies, community organizations, nonprofits and private cor- porations all have to work together to really make a difference. We are still doing some analysis of the data from the survey. The data from the survey will be added to the State Health As- sessment dashboard soon. We are currently doing some one-on-one interviews to do some deep dives to get a story behind the numbers. To do that, we are working with our partner, the Louisiana Public Health Institute. Those interviews will take place in January and February 2022, so we can really enhance our State Health Assessment with some engaging stories to make the numbers come alive. We are getting ready to transition right now to creating the State Health Improve- ment Plan from January 2022 to August 2022. We’ll be doing another round of vir- tual meetings across the state this spring to inform that plan. In the summer of 2022, we will publish the State Health Improvement Plan in the form of an interactive website and dashboard. BMAC What are the foundations of commu- nity health? How does this concept fit into the State Health Assessment and the State Health Improvement Plan? CAIN The foundations of community health, which are sometimes called the social de- terminants of health, really influence peo- ple’s health outcomes. There are severe inequities in people’s access to health, edu- BMAC Can you talk about where we are in the process and what to look for in 2022? CAIN We published the State Health Assess- ment dashboard in March 2021 at www. LouisianaSHA.com, and we are about to enhance the dashboard to include what we have heard from folks about their experi- ences with health. In summer 2021, we had a series of vir- tual meetings around the state where we engaged with residents to hear about their health concerns directly. At those meetings, we heard a lot about issues pertaining to healthcare, economic development and the environment. Cross-cutting themes from these meetings included health equity, community partnerships and access to re- sources and opportunities. Following those meetings, we fielded a statewide survey. The survey was complet- ed in October, and we had about 4,500 re- sponses. The heart of the survey was going through a bunch of issues and saying, “How much of a problem do you think this health issue is?” The survey also looked at the foundations of health, for example, ques- tions such as: “Does your community have access to parks?” “Does everyone in your community have an equal opportunity to get a good education?”Ultimately, we asked about people’s perceptions of access to ba- sic sources and factors that improve health. Robert Hines, MSPH Deputy Director for Planning and Performance Louisiana Department of Health The interview below has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.