click here to contact us: CHNA@HorizonNB.ca 506-453-7119 What is a CHNA? A CHNA is a process co-created with community that gives Horizon the ability to connect with local people to better understand their most important health needs. CHNAs offer many benefits. Over the years, we have heard from many who have participated in past CHNAs and here are some of the benefits that have been shared. Benefits of a CHNA How a CHNA helps to inform decision making in Horizon 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. Learn more about the different opportunities to become involved A CHNA provides an opportunity for everyone to come together to learn about and reassess the health and wellbeing of the area. This work supports everyone’s ability to be clear on the needs of the community so that we can align our collective efforts. As an active community member, we value your time and support. Our hope is that if you want to participate, there are opportunities at each stage of the process available that matches your time and interest. How we come together at each stage of the CHNA process will depend on what decisions need to be made and what works best for community. We will do our best to ensure a variety of gatherings take place from virtual meetings to in-person events. The options to participate are: Plan: We are looking for community representatives to help co-design the CHNA process. Guide and learn: We are looking for community representatives to support this stage of the process and guide the work of collecting perspectives and information from residents to identify health needs and to help decide how to communicate those needs to the right people. Share: Join an opportunity to share your perspectives about the health and wellbeing of your local area and the people who live there. Act: In some communities there might be opportunities to join action planning. This is a group of people who determine how the results from a CHNA can inform action already underway in your community. Your community report and updates Schedule and Review Process Our Team View all reports Moncton area: Profile Tantramar Area: Profile / Latest report Albert County Area: Profile / Latest report Riverview and Coverdale Area: Profile / Latest report Moncton and Surrounding Area: Profile / Latest report Petitcodiac, Salisbury, and Surrounding Area: Profile / Latest report Saint John area: Profile Sussex and Surrounding Area: Profile / Latest report Quispamsis, Rothesay and Hampton Area: Profile / Latest report Saint John Area: Profile / Latest report Grand Bay-Westfield, Welsford and Greenwich Area: Profile / Latest report Eastern Charlotte County Area: Profile / Latest report Western Charlotte County Area: Profile / Latest report Fredericton and Upper River Valley area: Profile Grand Lake Area: Latest report Oromocto and Surrounding Area: Profile / Latest report Fredericton and Surrounding Area: Profile / Latest report Central New Brunswick: Profile / Latest report Nackawic, Harvey, McAdam and Canterbury Area: Profile / Latest report Carleton County Area: Profile / Latest report Tobique and Perth-Andover Area: Profile / Latest report Miramichi area: Miramichi Area: Profile / Latest report Neguac Area: Profile / Latest report Horizon uses New Brunswick Health Council (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 the Vitalité Health Network facilitate CHNAs. All 22 NBHC communities within Horizon have had at least one CHNA. Five communities have taken part in a second CHNA. Click here to view the map with profiles and reports The COVID-19 pandemic put unforeseen pressure on our health care system, our health care workers, and our communities. A CHNA requires a commitment of time and resources from both the health care system and community to complete. In 2020, a decision was made to pause CHNA work to support the immediate needs of the pandemic. This decision delayed our assessment work by two years. In the fall of 2022, we reinitiated our CHNA engagement work. We are continuing with our original schedule whereby the NBHC communities that have had the most time pass since their last CHNA will be the first in our list to have a CHNA. Our original CHNA facilitation order was established with consideration given to chronic disease prevalence, prevalence of residents living on low-income, prevalence of residents over the age of 65 year, and accessibility to health care services. Click here for the most up-to-date version or our CHNA engagement schedule. It is expected that a CHNA will take up to 10 months to complete. The CHNA engagement team aims to initiate three CHNAs each year. We will review our CHNA Engagement Schedule yearly to ensure we are engaging with communities when it is appropriate to do. Below are the steps we will follow to review our CHNA schedule. A CHNA schedule review committee of community developers and our CHNA team will meet in the spring of each year. The committee will review the current schedule following a defined review process. The committee will identify and document proposed CHNA engagement schedule adjustments and justifications will be communicated to community partners, stakeholders, and right-holders. An updated CHNA engagement schedule will be posted on Horizon’s website. If you have questions about our CHNA engagement schedule or would like to speak to a member or our CHNA engagement team, please contact us. We welcome your questions and input. Email: CHNA@HorizonNB.ca | Phone: 506-453-7119 Click here for the most up-to-date version of our CHNA engagement schedule Horizon’s CHNA engagement team provides the back-bone support for CHNA work so that each CHNA can be designed and implemented with community representatives. This team also ensures that CHNAs are evaluated to determine the impact on the decisions made about how health care services are designed and delivered within community. We have a consistent team who work with communities conducting each individual CHNA. This team is made up of two CHNA Leads and a CHNA Coordinator. CHNA Leads: Both Erin Kelly and Kristin Saunders are the CHNA Leads. They work with communities to plan and facilitate individual CHNAs. This work involves: Determining the boundaries and scope of each CHNA. Identifying the populations to engage during the process. Collecting community input. Bringing collected input into a summary of local community health needs to present to stakeholders and rightsholders. Working with Horizon decision-makers to create an accountability response that is shared with community after needs are identified. CHNA Coordinator: Lisa Wheeler, CHNA Coordinator, supports the coordination of the planning, assessment, accountability, and evaluation aspects of the CHNA process. Community Developers: Horizon has a network of Community Developers who work within communities across New Brunswick. When a CHNA is taking place in a community, the Community Developer joins the CHNA engagement team. They play a huge role in supporting the work of planning and facilitating the CHNA. They are also responsible for supporting collaborative action that integrates the health needs identified by a CHNA. It is important to understand that Community Developers consider community members to be experts in their communities, and they value community knowledge and wisdom. Community development is led by community and supported by governments and organizations at every stage: from identifying issues and analyzing them, making decisions, implementing, and evaluating actions. Community development has an explicit focus on the redistribution of power to address the causes of inequality and disadvantage with the goal of having healthier, more vibrant, and sustainable communities. Contact Us: CHNA@HorizonNB.ca 506-453-7119 Frequently Asked Questions What is the purpose of a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA)? 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. How are communities and boundaries defined for CHNAs? 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. How long does a CHNA take? 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. When was the last CHNA completed in my community? 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. How can I find out when a CHNA will take place in my community? Refer to the schedule or contact CHNA@horizonnb.ca I live or work in a community that is serviced by Vitalité Health Network. How can I find out more about CHNAs for my area? 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 Who can I contact if I have questions about CHNAs? For questions, please email: CHNA@horizonnb.ca How do CHNAs align with other engagement efforts happening in New Brunswick? 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. How is population health data used as part of the CHNA process? 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. Why is it important to engage with different population groups? 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. Why should I get involved in a CHNA? 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 How can I get involved in a CHNA? 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.