Priority Areas

After the completion of the 2004 Gaston County Community Health Assessment (CHA), the GCHC Board of Directors met to review their current Community Action Plans (CPAs). Discussion included the top four health priorities as identified in the 2004 CHA as well as reports from the Project Group Chairs. Following this meeting, it was determined that three CAPs would continue using the same focus area with revised and additional interventions in order to reach an expanded population:

• Health Promotion: Physical Activity and Chronic Disease (Fitness & Nutrition Council). This priority focuses on two of the top four priorities for Gaston County based on the 2004 Community Health Assessment (CHA): Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease/High Blood Pressure.
• Injury Prevention: Motor Vehicle, Children and Access to Health (Childhood Health Promotion & Protection Project Group). This focus area, although still not one of the top four health priorities for Gaston County based on the 2004 CHA, continues as an area that is important for overall good community health for children.
• Older Adult Health and Health Promotion: (Parish Nurse Project Group). This focus area, although not one of the top four health priorities for Gaston County based on the 2004 CHA, continues as one of growing importance in our community since the percentage of the population in the Senior Citizen age group is steadily increasing.

In addition, two CAPs will continue but will be refocused on entirely new interventions. The Mental Health area is refocusing from educating the public on the signs and symptoms of depression and suicide prevention to educating the public on the availability of and access to care for mental health issues including substance and alcohol abuse. The Injury Prevention – Child Abuse and Neglect CPA previously focused on parenting programs but will shift to a new focus of programming based on a partnership with and direction from the Interagency Child Abuse Council.

• Mental Health – (Community Wellness Education Project Group). This general focus area is one of the top four priority areas based on the 2004 CHA for Gaston County. The specific focus has changed to address a community concern of a lack of access to care. New interventions are in the process of being developed with will target this shift in the detail of the priority. A new partnership with Pathways (the mental health, developmental disabilities, and substance abuse authority in Gaston County,) as the lead agency, is also being created.
• Injury Prevention – Child Abuse and Neglect: (Childhood Health Promotion & Protection Project Group). Although still not one of the top four priority areas as identified in the 2004 CHA for Gaston County, reducing injury to children due to child abuse and neglect remains important to the wellbeing of the children in our community and this important to the GCHC. The 2001 CAP for the priority was based largely on a partnership with the NC Cooperative Extension which has since made a number of programming changes due to a loss of some of its funding. The new CAP is currently under development brining in new partners such as the Interagency Child Abuse Prevention Council to provide input and a new direction for interventions.

Two new focus areas (CAPs) will be addressed by the GCHC in the summer of 2005. One of these, Teen Pregnancy/STDs, was a top four priority health issue coming from the 2004 CHA. The other area, Workplace Wellness, is one that is currently growing in an informal fashion in Gaston County. It represents a much needed area of focus due to rising insurance costs which have caused many companies in Gaston County to reduce insurance coverage for employees just as many workers have chosen to reduce or eliminate their own individual insurance policies due to their premium costs.

• Health Promotion – Teen Pregnancy/STDs: (Adolescent Sexual Health Project Group). An ad hoc group, formed by the GCHC, has been meeting on this issue since mid-2004. After surfacing as one of the top four health priorities in the 2004 CHA, the GCHC decided to formally establish a new Project Group which will forward with a formal CAP. The Project Group has been formed and the CAP is currently under development.
• Health Promotion – Chronic Disease and Access to Health Care: (Workplace Wellness Project Group). This focus area is not one of the top four priorities as a stand alone issue, however, it encompasses some of those issues within its scope: obesity, cardiovascular disease/high blood pressure, and mental health issues. A few of the larger companies in Gaston County have developed or expanded their own preventative healthcare/on-site clinics. This Project Group will formally organize these preventative healthcare departments and will establish a communication link and ultimately county-wide programming to address preventive healthcare for effected employees and their families.

Four successful CAPs have been discontinued by the GCHC and are being spun off to intervention partners in the County. They include:

• Infectious Disease – Immunization, Kindergarten: (Childhood Health Promotion & Protection Project Group) to be continued by Gaston County Schools, Gaston County Health Department and local pediatricians.
• Infectious Disease – Immunization, Older Adults: (Bessemer City Healthcare Center/Advocates for Healthy Citizens) to be continued by Gaston Family Health Services, Inc.
• Health Insurance – Adults and Children: (Bessemer City Healthcare Center/Advocates for Healthy Citizens) to be continued by Gaston Family Health Services, Inc.
• Injury Prevention – Violence to Self: (Healthy Choices Project Group) to be continued by Gaston County Schools.