How can we improve or strengthen the healthcare programs and infrastructure we already have in place in our community?

It almost goes without saying: making improvements in a community’s healthcare programs and infrastructure to improve access for all is the goal of all community health improvement groups. It is a lofty goal, but one that tends to float abstractly overhead, hovering just out of the reach of reality. Perspective is needed. This is where a creative community group can pull that annoying “this is just too big for us” balloon down to earth, and tie it onto concrete accomplishments.

Sometimes, to begin making changes, community planners need to separate the global view into discrete, almost random thoughts. Brainstorming, the collaborative process of collecting ideas without attaching analysis or argument to them, is a tool for sharpening “out of the box” thinking and blazing a trail for cross-cutting solutions.

Communities can start by asking, “What is it we do well, and how can we make it even better?” Or, conversely, “What is it we’re lacking, and how can we add it?” Or, “What are our top five community needs?” Or, what is the one thing we can do now/first/next?” (For assistance in facilitating community group brainstorming sessions, see Toolbox Section on Assessing Community Needs).

For many rural communities, strengthening existing healthcare programs and infrastructure does not mean immediately making large investments, such as hiring new practitioners or constructing new hospitals and clinic, but is accomplished through more subtle enrichments. These can take many forms: from organizing health fairs, to providing geriatric sensitivity training for home health workers, to training emergency services or first responder teams, to educating the public about self-screening tools, and more. It is important for a community health improvement partnership to entertain options of all sizes, and sort out what fits in terms of expediency, time frames, funding and expected outcomes.

This Toolbox section represents a sort of brainstorming session, a compendium of sample solutions and contact points to address a broad array of community health problems. Not many of these resources represent “large” answers, but serve as possible applications or tools for affecting change in community health status, as well as sources for public information.

Resources are arranged topically, as might occur in an intuitive brainstorming discussion, and are meant as incidental springboards for further idea development, not as a comprehensive overview.