In 1994, a group of representatives from health organizations and advocacy groups formed the Community Health Assessment Task Force (CHATF), a coalition to address the health needs of the County. The CHATF sponsored community forums in 1994, 1998, and 1999 with the purpose of collecting information on health challenges facing our county and working together to address them.

As time went on, the task force became aware of the need for a comprehensive, broad-based effort to collect more rigorous, scientific information on the health of our county.

In 1994 legislation took effect (Senate Bill 697) that required the non-profit hospitals to provide certain benefits to their communities. It required the hospitals to conduct an assessment of health needs in the community and use it to plan its benefit programs together with other local health care institutions, community based organizations and consumer groups. As a result, the efforts of the CHATF were given increased support to implement a comprehensive assessment process.

In 1998, the CHATF was able to raise funding to hire a nationally prominent community health assessment firm, Information Transfer Systems Inc. (ITS), of Ann Arbor Michigan, to conduct a survey on the health of county residents. The survey was conducted by telephone in both English and Spanish and collected information on physical and mental health, access to care, lifestyle practices, and health needs of over 1000 randomly selected adults and 400 children. This report presents key findings from this comprehensive county-wide survey. It tells us a lot about where we are doing well and where we need to focus efforts to improve the health of our county.