From Conversation to Connection: Improving Behavioral Health Access in Fulton County
This success story was submitted by Tiea Sharer, the Community Mobilizer at Fulton County Family Partnership, Inc.
The Fulton County Medical Center partners with the Fulton County Family Partnership to conduct the Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA). The CHNA is a systematic process that engages the community to identify and analyze local health needs, and then develop plans to address unmet needs.
To gather community input, the CHNA uses focus groups, key stakeholder interviews, and community surveys. From this information, priority drivers of health and health areas are identified. These needs are then evaluated to determine which should be addressed in Fulton County Medical Center’s Implementation Strategy. Factors considered include how many people are affected, the importance of the issue to the community, and the potential consequences of not addressing it.
Work groups are created to focus on the selected priority areas. One of these is the Behavioral Health Work Group, whose goal is to improve access to and coordination of behavioral health services.
One objective of the Behavioral Health Work Group is to increase awareness of the PA Navigate platform among healthcare and social service providers. By improving awareness and usage of PA Navigate, agencies and providers will be able to more easily connect individuals with resources and make electronic referrals.
To measure progress, the group is tracking:
The number of agencies using the platform
Added and claimed agencies
Agencies using the intake tool selection
The work group plans to expand education and outreach efforts about PA Navigate at various meetings and community events as the platform provides valuable connections to resources.