Sedgwick County is working on its community health assessment and will be sending out dozens of volunteers this Saturday to conduct surveys.
More than 100 responses were collected during the first survey period at the end of August, but they need about 250 more to have a representative sample of the county.
About 50 to 60 volunteers and health workers will be going door-to-door throughout Sedgwick County to conduct the surveys.
The surveys include a broad range of questions about health services, crime, access to health care and quality of life. They take about 10 to 15 minutes to complete.
The data collected will help shape a new Community Health Improvement Plan due out in early 2016.
J’Vonnah Maryman, director of public health performance for the Sedgwick Co. Health Department, says the surveys are completed every three years to identify the health concerns in the community.
"Those current five priorities are obesity and diabetes, mental health, access, oral health and health disparities," he says. "So we don’t know if the information we are collecting this go around is going to lend itself to those same five priorities or if those priorities will look differently."
Maryman says the surveys will be used to help develop strategies and measures to improve those health priorities.
The health department works with community partners such as Via Christi, the United Way of the Plains, WSU, KU School of Medicine-Wichita and citizens to complete the broader comprehensive community health assessment, which leads to the three-year Community Health Improvement Plan.
The current health improvement plan ends in December.
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