Cook Children’s leads Community-wide Children’s Health Assessment and Planning Survey
Cook Children’s Health Care System is leading the monumental task of identifying children’s health
priorities within its six-county region (Tarrant, Johnson, Hood, Parker, Wise and Denton Counties). The effort, known as Community-wide Children’s Health Assessment and Planning Survey (CCHAPS), is the first known project of its kind in the country to extensively focus entirely on identifying children’s health needs to implement solutions.
The information gained from CCHAPS will be a significant community resource, which helps frame public policy, supports expansion of children’s health services and fund-raising efforts on behalf of children.
“Ready access to data on the status of children’s health will provide a valuable community tool to support planning to meet the health needs of children,” said Cook Children’s President and CEO Rick W. Merrill. “Health status data can be used by community planning organizations to develop initiatives for action on children’s issues, by foundations for determining funding priorities where children are affected and by faith-based organizations to focus outreach ministry efforts.”
The CCHAPS survey will be mailed the week of Sept. 22, to thousands of households. Through the balance of the year, data will be gathered through household surveys of adults with children ages 0-14, from data generated by Cook Children’s services, key secondary data from government and professional sources and interviews with key informants, including children.
The CCHAPS process does not end after the data is gathered, analyzed and compiled. The next steps include taking the necessary actions to address the children’s health needs identified by the data. The results of the assessment will be shared throughout the six-county region. Collaboration is the hallmark of this initiative as new community groups are organized or existing work groups are providing additional support to address top priorities identified in the assessment. The ultimate goal is to improve the health of children in our six-county region.