community health needs assessment is underway

Dayton Children’s Hospital is asking parents what keeps them up at night, worrying about their kids, in the triennial community health assessment survey. This anonymous questionnaire asks parents of children younger than 11-years-old in the Dayton area questions about their child’s health, risk and protective health factors, and access to health care. Their answers will create a snapshot of the health of our region’s children and identify key concerns.

Done every three years, the results of the community health needs assessment will be published in summer 2020. Public and private agencies will then use those results to prioritize needs and create community health improvement plans.

Dayton Children’s Hospital works closely with the Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio and researchers at the University of Toledo (Ohio) to conduct the survey of 5,000 randomly selected parents. A form of the survey is also sent to community physicians for their input.

“We want to hear the voice of as many parents as possible, so please take a minute to complete and return the survey,” says Jessica Saunders, director, community engagement at Dayton Children’s. “Data from this survey will be used to set our community health priorities for the next several years, so it’s important we know what parents are seeing and feeling.”

The 2017 community health needs assessment identified three key areas of concern for the Dayton region’s children: mental health and addiction, chronic disease, and maternal and infant health. To that end, Dayton Children’s created programs and plans to address those issues.

• Created the behavioral crisis center for a better experience for children in a mental health crisis
• Opened the first behavioral health inpatient unit in the hospital’s history
• Created the complex care clinic, the Healthy Me program and the Dayton Asthma Alliance to better handle chronic conditions
• Created a clinically integrated network with community physicians to better manage chronic conditions
• Launched safe sleep initiatives, including a texting campaign