Plan Alignment: Creating Comprehensive Health Plans

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

• Why community health needs assessments and improvement planning processes are important
• How multi-sector partnerships can advance healthy design
• Resources and strategies for plan alignment

MORE SESSION DETAILS

It remains rare for communities to unite the parallel processes of comprehensive planning and community health improvement plans (CHIPs) to advance health and equity. Such alignment, however, has the potential to ensure effective implementation of a community’s goals, supporting healthy and safe places. This session will highlight lessons learned from three Plan4Health communities as well as recommendations from the American Hospital Association, showcasing effective strategies for plan alignment and the impact of cross-sector partnerships. Expanding the recommendations of APA’s Planning and Community Health Center’s Healthy Plan Making research, the Plan4Health project in Trenton, New Jersey, developed a health food and system element for the Trenton Master Plan. Plan4Health projects in Nashua, New Hampshire, and Tulsa County, Oklahoma, advanced healthy community design by incorporating built-environment strategies in their CHIPs. The support of local hospitals and healthcare partners was an essential element across these plan-alignment approaches. The Affordable Care Act stipulation that nonprofit hospitals must conduct community health needs assessments offers public health professionals, healthcare providers, planners, community organizations, and residents an additional incentive to design healthy, active places together.