The Guilford County Health Department is trying to figure out how healthy the county really is. That's why they're going door to door to survey hundreds of local residents.
It's part of a larger community health assessment that's taking place with other organizations. Officials want to know about residents' experience with medical costs, access issues, quality of life and more.
“If we don't ask, it's hard for us to know. We may incorrectly assume what the most pressing issues are,” says Laura Mrosla, a community health educator with the agency.
She says the information will be used to create new programs that meet the needs of residents. And, she notes, similar surveys in the past have been revealing.
“One of the biggest issues that we heard about was the need for better access to healthy foods, especially with those who didn't have a supermarket nearby. That actually lead to an initiative so those are the kinds of things that we want to see come out of this process.”
Mrosla says staff and volunteers will be wearing blue vests and will have their public health IDs on when they approach residents. The surveys will take place in Greensboro and High Point and will wrap up by the end of next week.
She says the Guilford County Health Department will hold community meetings in May to share some of the results and have people help them identify priorities.
A final report will be released in June.
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