Building a nationally accredited public health department in Clifton, NJ
Clifton, NJChallenge
The Clifton Health Department is applying for national accreditation to help improve its capacity to further improve health for all residents. As part of this rigorous process, the Health Department must complete a yearly Community Health Assessment (CHA) and Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP). Historically, the Health Department relied on county-level data from Passaic County to assess health and well-being within the city. But Passaic County is large, with many diverse cities. So for a city as racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse as Clifton, county data was too broad to precisely reflect the state of health in the city. A key component for accreditation is demonstrating that city officials have the most reliable data and analysis to identify the gaps to achieving better health.
This easy-to-understand data was so powerful that it helped sway the Clifton City Council to approve a satellite health office in a high need neighborhood identified by the Dashboard.
Impact
The city was able to pinpoint the communities with the greatest health disparities using the Dashboard’s neighborhood-level data, in particular the children in poverty, obesity, preventive services, and uninsured measures, combined with qualitative surveys and focus group interviews from local community health organizations. Having data on race, health, and economic measures helped the health department lay out the health inequities within the city and how they will work through programs, policy, and service delivery changes to drive change. This easy-to-understand data was so powerful that it helped sway the Clifton City Council to approve a satellite health office in a high need neighborhood identified by the Dashboard. This health office will provide health screenings, immunizations, case management, and public safety services to a community that has lacked access to health care and social services.