Health Resource Capacity Assessment for Putnam, Connecticut, May 2001

Recommendations

Potential recommendations were collected from focus groups, interviews, surveys, public input, research, and workgroup meetings. Collected recommendations were grouped into 20 categories and sent to workgroup members to prioritize (see Appendix). As several members were the only representatives for defined constituencies in Putnam, members were also given the opportunity to star one item that would be included in the final list, regardless of aggregate scores. Six members starred items and the group agreed to star another (see below). Starred items were:

• Expand access to health care
• Improve access to mental health services and substance abuse treatment
• Better management of current spending/operations
• Support for stressed families, particularly young, single parents
• Case management for chronic illnesses, complex cases
• Expand home health services
• Establish a Putnam community center

In the April 30, 2001 workgroup meeting, members discussed the need for a community center to address many of the recommendations. The need for a community center was a common need expressed by Putnam residents, providers and other stakeholders throughout the study. The workgroup agreed to include "Establish a Putnam community center" as a separate recommendation and to give it a star.

Twenty-one members returned their survey. There was a wide spread in scores for virtually every item. Many members noted in the comments section that it was very difficult to choose, that all the items were important.

Lessons learned from the needs assessment process that would be applicable to future needs assessments were:

• The critical importance of engaging community leaders from the beginning
• Ensuring that the community retains control of the process and results
• Inviting a wide diversity of community representatives to the workgroup
• Flexibility in meeting times, providing food for meetings
• Looking beyond statistical data to collect perceptions from town residents and providers through surveys, focus groups, public input, whatever means are appropriate to the town
• Emphasizing community context and history in any analysis
• A broad definition of "health" to include quality of life issues such as family stress, child care, schools, and transportation
• Focusing on solutions appropriate for the local culture and environment - for example, a recommendation to expand family planning services to address teen pregnancy was not appropriate for Putnam and would not have been successful
• Emphasizing long term goals and building a process to implement the recommendations from the first workgroup meeting