What are the ingredients of a healthy community? Specifically, what
are the factors that can be used to measure the health of Hall County,
Georgia?
With
its diversity of people and places, the health of a community must be
evaluated using a broad course of study, measurement and observation. This
has been the task and responsibility of the Healthy Hall Partnership—to
assess the health of Hall County as broadly and as comprehensively as
possible. Why? To better understand the health of our community and what
can be done to make it better.
Over the past nine years, Healthy Hall has guided two community
assessment projects. The first in 1998 resulted in findings that were
shared among the community, used by many non-profits in grant
applications, and used by The Medical Center Foundation in selecting its
projects for the Healthy Journey Campaign. Information from the
assessment also provided the impetus for the Hall County Medical
Society's Health Access Initiative, a project designed to help uninsured
adults with no other resources get the medical care they need. United
Way's 2-1-1, the service that connects individuals and families in need
to the appropriate community resources, was also formed after findings
from the Healthy Hall assessment supported the need for such a service.
Like a physician conducting a physical,
Healthy Hall uses this 2007 project to evaluate the health of our
community, probe attitudes, measure vital signs and compare findings to
expected norms and historical data, including a follow-up assessment
from 2003.
Unlike a medical exam where results are
confidential, however, Healthy Hall's intent is to share our findings
and observations as far and wide as possible. This report is a community
tool, designed to provide any citizen or community organization with
valuable information that can be used to plan, implement and help
produce a healthier more vibrant community. We invite any civic-minded
organizations, community advocates, health agencies or others to use our
data for their own work and planning.
The
Healthy Hall partnership views “health” as having more than one
dimension - instead, it has nine: social, physical, emotional, economic,
spiritual, aesthetic, occupational, educational and environmental.
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