About the Gadsden Community Health Council

Over several years, lay community members, local community based organizations, public health officials, county officials, state representatives, and neighboring academic institutions have attempted to address the magnitude of health disparities impacting residents of Gadsden County. Attempts to lessen these disparities have been made through the formation of focus groups, peer support networks, health fairs, and the offering of primary care services. However, a significant obstacle to successfully providing optimized health care services to the residents of Gadsden County is the fragmentation of services and accessibility to these services. Overcoming these obstacles required:

• Identifying existing health care services and assessing the availability of these services and systems; and

• Developing tools and linkages to increase service capacity through state, local and community-based organizations/coalitions and the creation of a community-based advisory board or coalition.

Consequently, as a result of the commitment of local and state officials such as Representative Curtis Richardson and Secretary John Agwunobi, the Gadsden County Health Department commissioned the Florida A & M University Institute of Public Health to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment predicated on the existing health disparities and health services needed in Gadsden County. The Gadsden Community Health Council (GCHC) was created to address issues identified by this needs assessment.

GCHC's Vision, Mission and Plan

Our VISION for Gadsden County is a community with a comprehensive and integrated health care system that helps all its citizens accept personal responsibility for becoming informed about, and committed to, healthy lifestyle choices.

Our MISSION is to:

Coordinate requests for new resources for care and prevention

Coordinate the delivery of health services in the county

Establish linkages between the local hospital and other health organizations and providers

Target increased access to health education programs

Identify priority health care needs for the community from an area wide needs assessment

Develop an action plan for priority areas

Identify available and potential resources for the community

Evaluate the effectiveness of current programs

Evaluate the adequacy of current resources

Provide technical assistance to the 2010 Steering Committee, providers, community groups as needed or requested

Provide evaluation and continuous feedback on progress toward the Council's goals

Coordinate with the Health Department and report progress and outcome attainment

Our Strategic Plan

1. Improve Gadsden County neo-natal and infant survival and health.

2. Reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases in Gadsden County.

3. Increase the healthy lifestyle choices of Gadsden County citizens that will lessen the incidence of preventable life-threatening diseases (tuberculosis, diabetes, stroke, cancer, heart disease).

4. Increase the availability of local health services provided to Gadsden County citizens.