Reprinted from the Health District's quarterly publication mailed to district residents (Fall 2004)

I know what you’re thinking. Someone is on the phone again asking for something, and you’re wondering, “What does this have to do with me, and why should I take the time?” It is an election year, after all, a time when everyone seems to be calling.

Well, here’s one phone call we hope you’ll take. The information you provide will stay right here in your own community and help make it a healthier place to live for everyone.

Every three years, the Health District conducts a confidential survey to find out more about the health of people who live in our community. We’ll be doing our survey again this fall, and we hope that if you’re called, you’ll agree to participate.  The call itself will be short – we just ask if you’re willing to fill out a survey that we send you.

We have to admit that the survey itself is a bit long. But in the past, we’ve been grateful that more than 2,200 people have been willing to participate, allowing us to develop an accurate picture of the combined health needs of the people who live in our community.

This survey is important for a couple of reasons.  First, it helps the Health District make the most of its limited dollars as we work to meet local health needs. The list is long, and choices are tough. We use information from the survey along with several other pieces of information – data from other sources, comments from local citizens in discussion groups, and reviews of our own programs – to decide on the services we will offer in the future.

Second, information from our survey is useful to others in the community, from policy-makers to news reporters. It is also available to anyone who has access to the Internet. And because we have collected such a broad range of local health information since 1995, it is easy to see at a glance just how well our community is doing when it comes to health matters. Other communities are not so lucky.

There’s no way to know if you’ll be asked to take our survey; people are chosen at random. But if you happen to be one of the people who gets our phone call, we hope you’ll take a few minutes to participate – it’ll make a big difference!