Priority Areas for 2023-2025 Announced

Every three years, Healthier Together revises our community health needs assessment with new data points and updated indicators to understand the health status, disparities, and preferences of our communities. We then partner with organizations to develop plans to address expressed community needs.

Healthier Together is happy to announce the health priorities for our next 3-year community health plan beginning in 2023. 

The priorities are:

Mental, Social, and Emotional Wellness

Mental wellness includes our emotional, psychological, and social health. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices. Healthier Together is focused on creating policy, systems, and environmental changes that support mental wellness for all residents of Pierce and St. Croix Counties and prevent mental illness from occurring. 

Mental health and physical health are equally important components of overall health and impact each other in complex ways. For example, depression increases the risk for many types of physical health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Similarly, the presence of chronic conditions can increase the risk of mental illness. 

Healthier Together acknowledges that substance use disorders and mental health issues are often co-occurring and must often be addressed together as part of this priority area. 

Thriving and Livable Communities for All 

Healthier Together understands that the conditions in the environments where our residents are born, live, learn, work, play, and age affect a wide range of health outcomes. These conditions can include factors such as economic stability, access to quality education and childcare, access to health care, access to affordable and healthy housing, access to transportation, safe air and water, access to nutritious foods, and safe and plentiful places for physical activity. 

Disparities in these conditions contribute to wide health inequities in health outcomes. Simply promoting healthy choices won't eliminate these health disparities. Instead, organizations across sections need to take action to improve conditions in people's living environments. 

Healthier Together is committed to supporting social, physical, and economic environments that promote attaining the full potential of health and well-being for all.