CHNAs are one of the many sources of information that supports Horizon in making informed decisions about:

• How health care services are made available and delivered.
• How Horizon collaborates with community members and local organizations on important initiatives that can impact health and wellbeing.

Introduce

The purpose of the Introduce Stage is to promote an upcoming CHNA in the community. To build awareness about upcoming CHNAs, communications are shared with community members and partners in the area through email. Various information sessions are also held so that people can learn about the CHNA process and ask questions.

A Community Engagement Capacity Survey that includes a mix of quantitative and qualitative questions to better understand the interests of the community in participating in a CHNA can also be completed during this stage of the process. The responses to the survey can be summarized to inform the discussions that take place during the Launch and Plan stages.

Launch

To begin the Launch Stage the CHNA Engagement Team works with the local Horizon Community Developer to identify community members to support the work that takes place in this stage. These community members should have strong community expertise and networks and have a solid background and knowledge of the community and surrounding area.

Community involvement: This stage is supported by four to seven community members who help guide early decision making and support the formation of the group of people who will help to plan the CHNA.

Meetings: This work is done over two to three meetings.

The goals of the CHNA Launch Stage are to:

• Review existing local data (e.g., New Brunswick Health Council, Statistics Canada, local reports).
• Discuss the CHNA boundaries (i.e., what geographical communities should be included in the CHNA). This step allows for the exploration of potential modifications to the geographical boundary involved in the CHNA if the pre-determined NBHC community boundary does not reflect how the community sees itself.
• Review results of the CHNA Community Engagement Capacity Survey (if applicable).
• Identify and invite additional community members to the group to support the work of the planning stage of the CHNA.

Plan

The purpose of the CHNA Plan Stage is to co-design and tailor the CHNA process to the current community’s unique engagement needs and capacity. Community members who participate in this stage of the work have a strong understanding of the area and are leaders within the community, serving in a health care or community service capacity with established relationships with residents or local organizations.

Community Involvement: This stage is supported by eight to 12 community members who help guide early decision making and support the formation of the group of people who will help to plan the CHNA.

Meetings: This work is done over three to four meetings.

The goals of the CHNA Plan Stage are to:

• Finalize the CHNA community boundaries.
• Review existing local data (e.g., New Brunswick Health Council, Statistics Canada, local reports).
• Discuss population health and health equity.
• Discuss issues of concern that may impact the health of the community to facilitate the identification of populations of focus for CHNA engagement.
• Identify and confirm the populations of focus who will be engaged during the Learn stage of the CHNA process.
• Identify community assets that support health.
• Identify communication methods that would best serve the community throughout the CHNA process.

Learn

The purpose of the Learn Stage is to gather qualitative data within the community to learn about the health and wellness needs of population groups living in the area. The learn stage is guided by a Community Learning Committee (CLC).

Community Involvement: This stage is supported by 10-25 community members who help to plan and organize community engagement opportunities.

Meetings: This work is done over two to three in-person meetings, as well as individual meetings as needed.

The Community Learning Committee members advise the CHNA Engagement Team on how to engage with members of the local populations of focus, so that appropriate qualitative data gathering engagements can be organized.

Goals of the Learn Stage are to:

• Advise on the Communication plan
• Advise on recruitment approaches
• Provide feedback on the final report

Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) is an opportunity for both community members and the CHNA Engagement Team to come together to learn about the health priorities of a local community area. This process is a way to determine the most important health needs at a given time.

CHNAs offer individual community members an opportunity to share their perspectives with Horizon Health Network about what they need to improve the health and wellbeing of their community.

The outcomes of a CHNA can inform decisions made to improve the health of people living in a community. This includes health care planning decisions within Horizon Health Network, but also decisions made by community, non-profit organizations, and other government departments.

Through learning together and planning actions together, CHNAs also build and strengthen relationships between community members, local organizations, and the health care system.

To plan action and impact the health and wellbeing of communities, it is important to have trusting and long-lasting relationships and therefore important to have collaborative discussions.

Horizon uses NBHC community boundaries as a starting point to initiate CHNAs. Each NBHC community is a collection of cities, towns, municipalities, and Local Service Districts that fall within catchment areas of health care centres, community health centres, and hospitals.

There are 33 NBHC communities within the province of New Brunswick. Both Horizon and Vitalité Health Networks facilitate CHNAs. All 22 NBHC communities within Horizon have had at least one CHNA. Five communities have taken part in a second CHNA.

A CHNA takes up to 10 months to complete but may vary in length depending on priorities and circumstances within a given community. A CHNA is complete when the community has identified health needs and Horizon has communicated a response back about how to integrate those needs.

Previous CHNAs took place between 2014 and 2021.

All communities that Horizon Health Network serves have participated in at least one prior CHNA and will have the opportunity to participate in another over the next few years.

CHNAs provide an opportunity to come together and revisit the health needs of the populations living in the area.

Please refer to the schedule here to view when the last CHNA was taken place or visit the last report in your community here.

Refer to the schedule or contact CHNA@horizonnb.ca

All communities in New Brunswick will have the opportunity to participate in a CHNA, therefore both Horizon Health Network and Vitalite Health Network facilitate similar, yet separate CHNA processes. To find out more about CHNAs in Vitalité visit https://www.vitalitenb.ca/en/network/publications/community-health-needs-assessment

For questions, please email: CHNA@horizonnb.ca

At the beginning of a CHNA, we take the opportunity to learn about engagement efforts that recently took place or that are currently underway in a particular community. The information gathered from learning about engagement activities can inform certain aspects of the CHNA, like what questions we need to ask when engaging with community members or which population groups we need to engage. The collaboration in a CHNA process ensures that alignment takes place between community and Horizon Health Network and therefore decreases the chance of duplicated efforts.

During the CHNA process, we use Census data, data collected and organized by the NBHC, and other forms of data to help us understand the health and wellbeing of local populations living in the same geographical area. This data helps us highlight factors that might be compromising the health and wellbeing of local populations.

Numbers and percentages alone are only part of the puzzle. To build a more complete understanding of the health and wellbeing of people, we ask community representatives who are the experts in their own circumstances to share perspectives and identify key factors that need to be addressed.

CHNAs are guided by a population health approach, which means we focus on a broad range of factors that impact health including social, environmental, and economic issues.

We also use a health equity approach because we recognize that there are differences within and between groups of people when assessing what makes them healthy.

Such differences are often the result of unfair social and economic systems that we rely on to function as a society.

We seek to include populations that experience inequities to understand their experiences so that we may determine targeted actions that bring us towards health equity for all.

It is important to have diversity and representation from as many population groups in the community.

• To connect and collaborate with other community members
• To stay informed on community health needs and priorities
• To lend input into CHNAs that will inform discussions around priorities
• To help inform your network/role/organization on important topics that arise during a CHNA
• To join opportunities to plan action

There are opportunities at each stage of the process to get involved and your participation is extremely important, valued and appreciated. Please click here and review the opportunities and email us at CHNA@horizonnb.ca.