The Polk County Health Department is creating a Community Health Improvement Plan to address key issues impacting central Iowans.
The focus is on non-medical factors that affect someone’s wellbeing, like access to care, housing, mental health and economic stability.
The Des Moines-based agency’s Michelle Seibert says they’re working with community organizations to figure out how to expand help that already exists.
Seibert says, “We’re hoping to support community-based organizations that are best positioned to do this, with hopefully resources.”
She says they’re looking into things like training more childcare providers and building credit for renters. They also want to make sure there is support for people returning from incarceration or inpatient mental health care.
Siebert says they’ve spent the last year engaging with community organizations to figure out how they can help to create actionable change.
“Our community really does have some of this infrastructure already in place,” Siebert says. “How can we build on that, expand or enhance what’s already going on?”
Polk County Health is finishing up the planning process before the project launches in June.
(By Maura Curran, Iowa Public Radio)