MAPP Lessons Learned Ann Zielinski Community Health Planner Melanie Johnston Epidemiologist El Paso County Department of Health and Environment 301 S. Union Blvd. Colorado Springs, CO 80910

Action Model of MAPP

MAPP Reality  Time and Money  Sequential Design  Creative Solutions

Organize for Success  Start within your organization  Identify the lead person/group  Assess readiness for comprehensive community planning  Assess training needs/plan for them  Identify resources required to support the project

El Paso County Organize for Success  Partnerships—existing community groups Collect information on current groups Assess readiness for comprehensive community planning Assess training needs/plan for them Identify people, agencies and groups that are important to your success

El Paso County Organize for Success  Citizens Committee for Public Health Community voice to tell the PH story Work at the request of the BOH Introduced at the Annual Meeting April 2003

El Paso County Organize for Success  Community Health Partnership Collaboration organized in 1996 Membership includes all providers of care to the uninsured 501(c)(3) designation

Local Public Health System Assessment  Tool available and ready to implement  Partners primarily members of the CHP  Health and Social Service organizations underrepresented  Results shared with PH  4 Public Health Improvement plans

Community Health Status Assessment (CHSA)  Evaluation of the health of our community  Asks: How healthy are our residents?  Focus groups, surveys  Survey method most effective way of collecting data on the health status of your community typically conducted in person, by phone or by mail

CHSA: Things to Consider  Limited Budget  need for creativity  ASK: Has a CHSA been conducted in your county before? Does your county have adequate funding? Does anyone in your dept have data collection and data analyses skills? What are some other options for collecting data?

New Option: Online Surveys  Many web based survey tools available to the public  UCHSC is developing their own tool which will be free to local health departments  Web based online survey tool is a cost effective method of gathering data  However, some caveats must be considered

Things to Consider  Marketing of the Survey How do we get an adequate number of responses? What incentives are there for people to go online and take the survey? How do we reach a large number of potential respondents  Getting a Representative Sample Can we get a random sample? Need to ensure that the sample represents the demographics of our community  IRB and HIPAA

Lessons Learned  Marketing Strategies Design a “catchy” marketing campaign: use flyers, cards, posters Newspaper, TV, radio, newsletters Mass s to community partners Utility Bill Inserts Provide incentives (if not monetary then a service i.e. health dept presentations on any topic of interest)  Getting a Representative Sample Not possible to get a random sample Match demographics of survey respondents to demographics of El Paso County Over-sample under-represented populations Paper versions of survey for select populations i.e. seniors; other groups who do not have access to a computer or online access; health department clients

Online Surveys: Cost Effective but….  Need to develop trusting relationship with the university/ company that is hosting your survey  Need to have someone who is skilled at survey design, data collection, and data analyses  Need to have a strong marketing campaign