The NARBHA Institute and Northern Arizona Healthcare Foundation approached CHER in 2016 to conduct a comprehensive regional needs and assets assessment of health in northern Arizona. CHER has compiled and analyzed existing data and met with community members, leaders, and healthcare providers to understand what their priorities are and what resources they feel are most impactful in improving health across the region. The assessment also documents existing community assets and strategies that are successfully tackling some of these issues and includes a “best practices” guide to share with the communities and counties. The report contains a comprehensive map of existing evidence-based needs, assets, and program development resources and strategies to reduce health disparities across the region. The assessment will help funding agencies and strategic planners prioritize spending and help communities build capacity to support health and wellbeing in their communities.
CHER initiated two pilot intervention programs as a part of this project, Health Disparities in Jail Populations and Employee Wellbeing. The first will study the confluence of behavioral health issues, infectious disease, and chronic illnesses, which show significant patterns of health disparities in jail populations when compared with the general population. The latter will study management practices in healthcare institutions and their impact on employee wellbeing, which have a multitude of effects on outcomes for patients as well as for healthcare organizations.
This project is funded by the NARBHA Institute and the Northern Arizona Healthcare Foundation.