Guilford County Public Health was one of three county Health Departments that received special recognition from the State of North Carolina for its exemplary work in Community Health Assessment (CHA).   The recognition was made at the North Carolina Division of Public Health’s Community Health Assessment Winter Institute in Raleigh, on January 12, 2018.

 The Guilford Assessment Team and Steering Committee, both comprised of officials from local agencies such as the United Way of Greater Greensboro, Cone Health, Guilford Adult Health, High Point Regional Health, Foundation for a Healthy High Point, UNC-G Dept. of Public Health Education, Alcohol and Drug Services of Guilford,, and Guilford County DHHS were recognized for exemplifying best practice in Leadership, Partnership and Scholarship for their most recent Community Health Assessment/Community Health Needs Assessment (CHA/CHNA), in particular the use of a theoretical framework to inform the work.

The award was presented to Mark H. Smith, Ph.D. and Laura Mrosla, MPH, MSW, by Kathryn Dail, Director of NC Community Health Assessment with the North Carolina Division of Public Health. Mark Smith is the Epidemiologist and Laura Mrosla is a Community Health Educator with the Public Health Division of Guilford County Department of Health and Human Services.

The Division of Public Health conducts a comprehensive community health assessment of the health of Guilford County residents every three years in collaboration with community partners. A collaborative process allows public health, non-profit hospitals and community stakeholder to work together to identify critical Guilford County issues and to plan and implement interventions to address these issues.

The 2016 Guilford County CHA analyzed existing data on the county health needs and strengths and informed the identification of priority health issues. These findings also lead us to action plans. For more information about the Guilford County Community Health Assessment, go to  here.