The Flint Hills Wellness Coalition will host a community health meeting at the Family and Child Resource Center in Manhattan on Thursday. Flint Hills Wellness Coalition Chair Debbie Nuss says they will define and prioritize community health goals for the next three to five years:
The meeting will begin with data that was collected by Wichita State University’s Center for Applied Research and Evaluation (CARE), who administered a community survey, and interviewed community members. Riley County Health Educator Shanika Rose shares the most cited concerns from the study.
Rose says it’s important for the community to be involved in setting prioritized goals for the next three to five years.
Nuss also reviewed goals and progress from the previous five years. One goal was active transportation. That work-group helped the City of Manhattan with a plan to make bike and pedestrian access and safety better; and helped ATA Bus improve routes that better meet the community’s needs.
Another group created a care team which now provides case management in a wrap-around approach to help high risk community members be more successful. This is helping to reduce the strain on emergency medical services and emergency rooms, by intervening when community members need help that is not necessarily a medical issue. Another positive impact for community health resulted from establishing the Crisis Stabilization Unit. Although, Nuss notes that the recent community health assessment data shows there are still unmet needs the coalition needs to address. The public meeting will set priorities and create work groups to meet those goals.
