The Community Health Assessment gives us information on the health and well-being of the Cook County community. This information comes both from community members themselves, and from data sources such as the U.S. Census, the Minnesota Student Survey, and the regional Bridge to Health survey. By bringing this information together in a report, the Community Health Assessment becomes a tool that multiple organizations can use for program planning, grant applications, and simply to better understand the health landscape of the County.
2023-2027 Community Health Assessment
The Cook County Community Health Assessment (CHA) represents a collaborative effort to better understand the factors that influence the health of those who live in Cook County Minnesota. Because we believe that everyone in Cook County deserves the opportunity to be the healthiest version of themselves, we also aim to pay close attention to the reasons that some segments of the population experience greater challenges than others in achieving this state of health.
To accomplish these goals, the CHA uses a variety of data sources, including local, regional, and statelevel reports. These include: the Bridge to Health Survey, the Minnesota Student Survey, U.S. Census, focus groups and key informant interviews. The process of learning about and improving community is continuous, which means that this document will be updated as new data becomes available, with a more formal and significant revision happening on a five-year cycle.
In addition to gathering and reviewing data on health for Cook County, a committed group of community members gathered 3 times between summer 2022 and 2023 to discuss the information presented in the CHA, provide comment, and collectively prioritize areas of focus for the Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) using the Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) tool, developed by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). The phases of this process are straightforward: 1) Build a foundation for health improvement, 2) Tell the community story, and 3) Continuously work to improve community health.
Top Priorities
Community health assessments use data to determine priority health areas most impacting a community’s health. This includes assessing the conditions in which we live, learn, work, and play. Local health departments collaborate with community members and partners to select these priority health areas. After Cook County Public Health and community partners determine priority health areas, they work together to assess potential strategies that could make an impact.
Mental Health Resources & Support for Well-Being
Not everyone has the same access to experiences and resources that support mental health. Nearly half of Cook County residents have never been screened for mental health issues, according to the 2020 Bridge to Health Survey. This is similar across the region. Men were more common (56.6%) than women (40.0%) to report never receiving a screening in Cook County.
Affordable Housing
Housing strongly impacts person’s overall health and well-being. A 2022 needs assessment of housing in Cook County (Loci Consulting, 2022) found that there is a shortage of all types of housing (rental housing, housing for sale, senior housing, and special needs housing). When people struggle to find, and afford safe housing options that meet their needs, it becomes a huge stressor and can, ultimately lead to people leaving the community.
Affordable Healthy Foods
Cook County’s increase in food shelf visits and pounds of food distributed from 2021 – 2022 mirrors state-level trends. Hunger Solutions Minnesota links these trends to inflation in the price of food during this time, alongside the loss of certain economic support programs implemented during the pandemic (such as stimulus payments, child tax-credit advance payments, emergency SNAP).
Affordable, Quality Childcare
A 2022 Supply and Demand Gap Analysis by First Children’s Finance showed that there is an unmet need for at least 114 childcare slots to meet the demand of families with children 0-5 in Cook County and Grand Portage. Both stability in the childcare workforce and families’ ability to afford care impact both the accessibility of childcare and workforce participation.
Physical Health Services
Cook County is focusing on timeliness of health services, which is the ability to provide care when the need for it is recognized. There are many reasons this can happen: lack of transportation, lack of an established provider, insurance status, work hours, etc. In Cook County, poverty is a factor that influences dental care access, shown by Bridge to Health Survey.
Transportation Options
Struggles with transportation impact more than just health care access; they can also influence a person’s ability to travel to work or school, the ability to purchase groceries, recreational opportunities, and the ability to visit friends and family. All these things have an impact on health. A recent survey in Cook County assessing the ease in which residents view they can age within the community, many residents reported difficulty with transportation, specifically when visiting family or friends (26.9%).
Community Health Improvement Plan
The Community Health Improvement Plan is a collaborative, living document that creates shared health priorities that help to focus our efforts across agencies. By documenting the various initiatives that aim to address these priority health areas across agencies and re-visiting them over time, we create a record of how we’ve worked together to improve community health.
Click here to read the 2023-2027 Cook County Community Health Assessment and Improvement Plan.