The foundation regularly reviews health data and engages local task forces to inform our work. Through the years, these groups have assisted us in publishing a series of reports that have shaped our strategic approach to community investments and initiatives.
Data plays a vital role in our ability to monitor and understand the health of our region. We regularly rely on the annual County Health Rankings & Roadmaps to assess local health outcomes. These reports make it easy to examine changes in health risk behaviors, access to clinical care, quality of life and a range of other important factors. Our Cumberland County Health Trends Report and Perry County Health Trends Report summarize over 50 health indicators that span from 2012 to 2021. Through funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, new County Health Rankings are released every spring.
In 2022, we joined with the Perry County Health Coalition to commission a health assessment of leading factors influencing health conditions in Perry County. Led by faculty from Dickinson College, the findings are drawn from focus groups and quantitative data analyses. The report documents how access to basic health services in Perry County has remained stagnant or worsened in the past 10 years. The 2022 Executive Summary & Call to Action (Complete Assessment also available) makes five major recommendations for forward progress. A prior assessment conducted in 2015, Executive Summary- Perry Health Market Analysis, provided a host of practical steps to improve the availability of health services in Perry County.
Our Safe Routes to School series presents action strategies to guide three neighborhood elementary schools in pioneering school walking initiatives. Through the work of a Behavioral Health Task Force, our Opportunities and Challenges report takes a hard look at mental illness and substance abuse issues facing our region. In 2006, the foundation commissioned a study by the Clean Air Council that documents critical air quality problems in our region and presents strategies for improvement.
The Partnership for Better Health commissioned a report to combine Pennsylvania Youth Survey (PAYS) results in our service area from 2017, 2019, and 2021. Findings from this report were shared during a Youth-Serving Professionals Forum held in Carlisle on May 2, 2023. View the 2021 PAYS summary report, view presentation slides, or learn more about the forum.
The foundation’s earliest reports in 2002 featured a Community Health Status Assessment that measured local population health and a Health System Improvement study that made recommendations for building a stronger continuum of health services in our region. A 2003 report by the foundation’s Prevention & Education Task Force outlined a comprehensive approach to health promotion and the prevention of five leading chronic diseases afflicting our region.
If you would like copies of these reports, please contact our office at 717.960.9009.