By Ayesha Hana Shaji
Texas Metro News Team
Parkland and Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS) shared results of two important analyses: the outcomes of the three-year project that was put in place in response to the 2019 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) and the results of the 2022 CHNA, which identified key health issues and the drivers of the issues, said Teresita Oaks, director of community health programs at Parkland Hospital.
“So we want to share with the community what were the outcomes, where we did progress, where we put our resources and how we are tackling health disparities,” she said, adding that they identified chronic health and behavioral and mental health issues; drilling down into chronic diseases, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and lung-related diseases such as asthma and lung cancer were identified as areas of concern.
As for mental health, the pandemic and associated stressors have only exacerbated existing challenges, she explained.
“There are pockets in the community where the [mental health] stressors are related to poverty, some of these higher rates for morbidity and mortality also allow for more stress and you couple that with the challenges of the pandemic isolation has galvanized the challenges with mental health,” Oaks said.
Jessica Hernandez, senior vice president and chief DEI officer at Parkland Health, presented the results of the 2019 CHNA program evaluations.
She explained how Parkland along with their partners helped improve access to care and coverage in numerous health sectors including, breast health, diabetes, hypertension, maternal and child health, pediatric asthma and sexually transmitted infections.
In discussing cultural competency, she shared how demographics affect the disparities in access to healthcare leading to a disproportionate number of people from underrepresented communities being affected, and also how Parkland along with their partners helped to improve the situation.
Further, Dr. Frederick P. Cerise, president and CEO of Parkland Health and Dr. Philip Huang, director of DCHHS discussed the collective impact of 2022 CHNA findings and strategies for advancing health equity.
They discussed how chronic diseases, particularly diabetes, are a major health concern for Dallas County residents, with mortality rates that are higher among Hispanics and Black/African American residents.
Mental health, financial stress, and COVID-19-related issues are also significant concerns for the community, said Dr. Huang.
Dr. Cerise explained how the findings showed that in Dallas County, Hispanic and Black/African American women in South Dallas have worse prenatal and postpartum outcomes due to diabetes and chronic hypertension.
South Dallas also has limited clinic availability, creating barriers to care. Pediatric asthma is prevalent in this area, and the demand for pediatric behavioral health services is increasing in Dallas County, according to the report; which included information on how concentrated low economic investment and low infrastructure areas are correlated with worse health outcomes, higher poverty rates and limited access to healthcare facilities.
The results of the CHNAs can be found on Parkland Health’s website. There has also been an implementation plan that has been showing great results, Dr. Cerise said.
“If we create this document that can serve as our single source of truth, and we work together and engage our community partners then we can all find that these issues need to be solved in collaboration,” Oaks said.
She said if everyone can leverage the findings and the implementation plans from the CHNA to make it visible that working together creates the right direction for positive outcomes, then that is what she would like everyone to take from the event.
