On December 1, 2021 Walton Wellness Inc. will release its comprehensive Community Health Needs Assessment for Walton County. This health assessment will be made public on the Walton Wellness website at www.waltonwellness.org, along with the complete data appendix for community use.
Walton Wellness analyzed extensive data on the deaths, ER visits, and hospitalizations within the county for the year 2019, in addition to the prevalence and morbidity of these health issues. Data was also gleaned from stakeholder interviews and focus groups with county residents. However, due to covid restrictions at the time, community input was difficult to obtain.
“We are excited to have a needs assessment of this depth and granularity completed by the community for the community,” said lead author Alex Lundy. “I think the incredible value of this project lies in the granular level at which we evaluated the numbers ourselves. Our full data appendix will also be available on our website and includes all of the mortality and hospital visit data for 2019 stratified by diagnosis, gender, and race. This will be an invaluable tool available to anyone working within any niche of the health arena in Walton County, “ says Lundy.
Walton Wellness Inc has been dedicated to the work of “Health For All” in Walton County since 2011. They were born out of the Mission of the Walton County Health Care Foundation Inc. Executive Director DeDe Harris says, “Because we are a prevention oriented organization we want to stress the importance of looking beyond mortality rates in our community. In order to move past a treatment perspective and deal with the root of our issues; it is vital to look at this assessment through a lens of prevention. A prevention focus provides opportunities for planning strategies of real impact that will change our health outcomes.”
Walton Wellness is hopeful that this CHNA and data appendix will be utilized by organizations across the county, not only to gain a deep understanding of the health landscape of Walton County but also for strategic funding and insightful programming; to begin to strategically impact there areas that are most in need.
Walton Wellness is set to present the Community Health Needs Assessment to the Walton County Board of Commissioners within the week. It will also be presented to various community organizations throughout the calendar year. If your agency is interested in a presentation on this valuable health data for our county, please reach out to Walton Wellness at waltonwellnesshealthed@gmail.com to request a presentation.
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