San Juan Basin Public Health released its community health assessment survey last week and is asking residents of La Plata and Archuleta counties to provide anonymous input on their public health priorities and needs.
The results of the survey are critical in creating the guiding public health improvement plan, which departments are required to create every five years, according to the 2008 Colorado Public Health Reauthorization Act. However, SJBPH will have just a few short months to benefit from the refreshed plan; the department will be dissolved at the end of the year, per a joint resolution passed by the county commissioners in the two counties.
The counties will receive results of the community health assessment process.
The survey, which will remain open until April 7, asks residents questions regarding the importance of various public and environmental health concerns. It takes about 15 minutes to complete.
The timing of the survey’s release is rather fortuitous given the task that the counties face. La Plata County commissioners are in the process of interviewing roughly 30 candidates who applied to serve on the La Plata County Board of Health. Once assembled, the new board will be tasked with standing up the county’s own public health department, which must be operational by Jan. 1, 2024.
SJBPH spokeswoman Megan Graham said the department has always broken the results of the community survey down by county, but that the county-level data will be even more important this year than in the past.
“We're working really hard to try to make sure we're getting a lot of input on the Archuleta side,” Graham said. “The last one we got, it was relatively lopsided in terms of who we got feedback from. The number of survey responses were much higher in La Plata than in Archuleta County.”
Graham clarified that each county was proportionately represented in the last survey, but said the department is making extra outreach efforts this year to collect as much information as possible so that both counties are well-equipped as the transition begins.
The decision to dissolve SJBPH was fueled by conflict between the two counties stemming from what La Plata County Commissioner and current Board of Health member Marsha Porter-Norton called “different visions of public health.” The differences first became a source of conflict during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Porter-Norton said results of the assessment will be delivered to the La Plata County Board of Health, which she expects to be assembled within the next two to four weeks. She expects the assessment to be a “key piece” of information in establishing the new department.
“It will be extremely important in knowing vis-à-vis the survey what the highest public health needs are,” Porter-Norton said.
In addition to the survey, SJBPH will be conducting informal focus groups with community stakeholders and one-on-one interviews with key informants. Graduate students from the Colorado School of Public Health will also help the department collect data.
An English and a Spanish version of the survey is available on SJBPH’s website. Given the impending transition, Graham said participating in the survey this year is “more important than ever.”
rschafir@durangoherald.com
This story has been updated to clarify that responses gathered in the community health assessment conducted five years ago proportionately reflected the difference in population between Archuleta and La Plata counties.
