Maine Shared Community Health Needs Assessment State and County Health Reports Released

Maine Shared Community Health Needs Assessment (Maine Shared CHNA) 2022 Reports once again show mental health, social determinants of health, substance use, and access to care among the top health priorities identified across multiple communities throughout Maine. These findings, and more, are summarized in each of the 16 County Reports and the State Report.

There are two major sections to the State Report. The first section describes each of the four statewide priorities in more detail including their related health indicators and participants’ key takeaways identified through the community engagement process. There is also a description of community-identified resources available to address those concerns and any related gaps or needs.

The second section provides similar input provided from just 10 of Maine’s diverse communities. New this cycle is an expanded effort to reach those who experience systemic disadvantages and therefore experience greater health disparities. Those communities included:

• Black or African Americans
• People who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing
• People who live with a disability
• People with low income
• People experiencing homelessness
• Immigrants
• Lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual, and queer community
• People with a mental health diagnosis
• Older adults
• Youth

Jo Morrissey, Program Manager said, “We want to gratefully acknowledge the countless community partners who committed to hosting, facilitating, attending, and engaging in this effort. In addition to the hosts in each of Maine’s 16 counties, we’d like to thank our Community Event hosts (Consumer Council System of Maine, Disability Rights Maine, Green Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church, Health Equity Alliance, Maine Continuum of Care, Maine Council on Aging, Maine Primary Care Association, Maine Youth Action Network); and our Oral Survey partners (Capital Area New Mainers, City of Portland Minority Health Program, Gateway Community Services, Maine Access Immigrant Network, Maine Community Integration, Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services, Mano en Mano, New England Arab American Organization, and New Mainers Public Health Initiative). These partners worked to adapt the City of Portland Minority Health Program’s Oral Survey to collect input from 1,000 individuals within Maine’s diverse immigrant community. The Maine Shared CHNA partners recognize that achieving health equity requires close collaboration with those who experience disparities to identify their priorities and what’s working, and what’s not working for them.”

Other identified priorities included diabetes, oral health, cardiovascular disease, older adult health, cancer, and improved healthcare communication, especially among the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.

The State Report and the 16 County Reports can be found on the Maine Shared CHNA website at (www.mainechna.org). The website also contains Data on Health Profiles by geographies such as Public Health Districts, counties, and 3 urban areas (Bangor, Lewiston/Auburn, and Portland). Health Equity Data Sheets are also provided by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, sex, education, income, older adults, insurance status, and rurality. There are also two data sheets from the Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey on LGBT youth and transgender youth.

The health reports will be used by

• Maine’s non-profit hospitals to create community health improvement plans.
• Maine’s District Coordinating Councils to create District Health Improvement Plans within the next two years.
• the Maine CDC to create a State Health Improvement Plan within the next two years.
• policy makers, non-profits, businesses, academics, and other community partners for their strategic planning purposes and grant writing.

The Maine Shared CHNA is a unique public-private statewide collaborative effort between Central Maine Healthcare, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, an office of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, MaineGeneral Health, MaineHealth, and Northern Light Health. Funding for the Maine Shared CHNA is provided by the partnering healthcare systems with generous in-kind support from the Maine CDC and community partners.

Significant analysis was conducted by epidemiologists at the Maine CDC and the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service. Market Decisions Research provided quantitative and qualitative analysis, as well as design and production support. John Snow, Inc. (JSI) provided methodology, community engagement, and qualitative analysis expertise and support. The oral survey was adapted from the City of Portland’s Minority Health Program’s survey. Special thanks to the Partnership for Children’s Oral Health for their data contribution.

The extended engagement efforts were pilot outreach initiatives made possible with additional funding support from the Maine Health Access Foundation and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (U.S. DHHS) as part of the Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant (Awards NB01OT009343-01 & NB01OT009413-01; note the contents of these reports are of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by the U.S. CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government.).

To contact a specific partner:

Kate Carlisle, Central Maine Healthcare, carliska@cmhc.org

Joy McKenna, MaineGeneral Health, joy.mckenna@mainegeneral.org

John Porter, MaineHealth, jporter1@mainehealth.org

Karen Cashman, Northern Light Health, kcashman@northernlight.org

Robert Long, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert.Long@maine.gov