Since 2015, St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Grand Junction, Colorado, has collaborated with the health department and other community stakeholders to complete a shared Community Health Needs Assessment. Led by Mesa County Public Health, the collaboration is the power of a group working together to align on identified health needs.
Victoria Grasmick, Intermountain Health’s Community Health Director for Western Colorado, says the community collaboration helps to better understand shared interests, allocate resources, and affect change. With the closest cities being Denver and Salt Lake City, having a strong connection between community collaborators can more effectively address challenges in the only urban community in a vast rural area.
The 2024 group assessment will likely have similar identified health needs to the 2021 assessment. Those included education, health implications (health behaviors and outcomes), and healthcare and access.
“We’re all trying to make a difference in our community, and doing this work together makes sense,” Victoria says. “You can use the analogy of instead of everyone in the neighborhood building their own swimming pool. We’ve put together an incredible community pool that everyone can use. We’ve figured out what’s most beneficial as a group, instead of doing it alone.”
The community collaborators include executives and representatives from Mesa County Public Health, St. Mary’s Regional Hospital, Community Hospital, Grand Junction VA Medical Center, MarillacHealth, Hilltop, Family Health West, and Mind Springs Health.
Advantages of the collaborative approach include sharing resources and greater alignment. For example, Mesa County Public Health has a dedicated data analysis department that provides their statistics with the group. This opens up time for examining findings together, evaluating, and asking questions.
Another advantage is contributors know their input is going into one single, unified, and impactful document.
“Community organizations don’t have to look through multiple assessments to find meaningful data to inform and inspire action—they know to look in one place,” says Shae Lynn Watt, Data Analyst at Mesa County Public Health. “Our collaboration provides that level of comprehensive expertise and connection.”
In particular, the community collaboration has informed a Community Transformation Group in the Clifton area near Grand Junction as a priority population.
“In this area, both data and community input indicated a big need for safe community gathering spaces to promote community involvement, strengthen social networks, and provide prosocial activities for youth,” says Shae Lynn.
The Community Transformation Group has focused on making improvements to the main park and playground in Clifton. They’ve involved local youth and teens in the redesign and added amenties and activities like basketball, soccer, and skate features. The park hosts community events and is a safe outdoor space for gatherings.
Other improvements in the works include a community campus that will be home to an early childhood education center, training center, community center, and the Clifton Library.
“We're all trying to make a difference in our community,” says Victoria. “Being able to work together on shared goals and create deeper connections is powerful.”
“Alignment of services, alignment of priorities, and alignment of goals puts us all on the same train going the same direction, and we will get there much quicker if we’re all doing this together,” says Mesa County’s new Public Health Executive Director, Xavier Crockett, in a Grand Junction Daily Sentinel article.
The Community Health Needs Assessment began last November and is anticipated to be completed at the end of June. Afterward, St. Mary’s and the other entities in Mesa County will begin work on their own Community Health Improvement Plans based on the one shared assessment.