Under Construction: New HIP Objectives

Community volunteers are hard at work gathering and organizing Washtenaw County health data in an effort to help to build our future HIP Objectives and Priority Areas. By looking at 2005 HIP survey data and other sources, HIP Objective Review Teams are developing an understanding of the county’s health status.

The teams are identifying at risk groups in the county for a variety of health issues and are examining data trends by comparing the findings of the 2005 HIP survey to the data from 1995 and 2000. With the information they have gathered, groups will identify critical health issues and will make recommendations for new HIP Objectives.

Workgroups are organized into the following teams: chronic disease, perinatal health, communicable disease, mental health and substance abuse, access to care, injuries, and environment and have been meeting monthly to discuss the data review process.

How are the HIP Objectives used?

The current 1995 HIP objectives are used by a number of organizations to prioritize programs and allocate resources to address community needs. These organizations include the Washtenaw County Human Services Collaborative Council, Washtenaw United Way, Washtenaw County Public Health, University of Michigan Health System, Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital, and Chelsea Community Hospital, among others. Our new HIP objectives will be just as important as we move into a new decade of health concerns. Using HIP data, public and private agencies in the county have leveraged several million dollars of funding for disease prevention and health promotion programs.

What are the next steps?

In September, the workgroups will identify the 3-4 critical areas of concern for their health topic and report these findings to the HIP Implementation Team. The Implementation Team will review the workgroups' findings and draft HIP Objectives that will be announced at the January 2007 CHC meeting.

The Washtenaw County Health Improvement Plan Implementation Team would like to thank all of the community volunteers who are currently hard at work to make this happen!