The City of St. Joseph Health Department is conducting a community health assessment to help with planning programs and working toward a healthier community.

Health Educator Nancy King said the assessment will help get feedback on what community members feel are the overall health issues in the community, with an emphasis on priority health issues for infants, children, adolescents and women of childbearing age as part of the maternal child health contract.

“This will help us to develop programming and to develop what priority health issues we want to address over the next three years with regard to maternal child health,” King said.

The questions are broad and ask for opinions about community health issues and quality of life in the St. Joseph area. King said some of the questions ask for opinions on the most significant health problems in the community, safety issues for people in the community and whether the area is a good place to raise children and grow old. 

“We really encourage people to take the survey… it’s the new year and as we are looking at New Year’s resolutions and how we can make positive changes in our own lives, we really look for feedback on what people feel like what positive changes we can make in our community to make it a healthier and safer place to live,” King said. “We would like to have this community health assessment sort of be that starting point to help us identify what positive changes we need to make in our community to make it a better place.”

The survey is available online. The Health Department will also be posting notices on its Facebook page of times and locations Health Department staff will be out in the community with tablets and paper copies of the survey within the next week.

For more information, contact the Health Department at (816) 271-4636. Print copies of the survey are available at the St. Joseph Health Department at 904 South 10th Street.