Montgomery County Needs Assessment Released
Coalition of Philanthropic Organizations Releases Independent Assessment
of Health and Human Services Issues and Needs in Montgomery County;
Available Online Today
New Report Outlines Specific Recommendations to Address Problems Identified; Despite Wealth and Resources, Many Unmet Needs Still Exist
November 15, 2006 – A new report released today by a coalition of philanthropic groups and other organizations working in Montgomery County provides comprehensive data and information about critical health and quality of life issues that affect this highly populated and evolving Pennsylvania county. The report also lays out recommendations about what needs to be done to meet the needs of residents in areas such as early childhood education/childcare services, care for the critically ill and disabled, and services that can support growing minority and immigrant populations.
The in-depth report, “An Independent Assessment of the Health, Human Services, Cultural and Educational Needs of Montgomery County,” was researched and written by a team from Temple University’s Fox School of Business. The full report was released November 14 at noon during a press conference at the Montgomery County Foundation, Inc, located at 2 W. Lafayette Street, Suite 120, Norristown. The report and five region-specific reports are available at no cost on the Internet via each of the sponsors’ websites (See full list of sponsors below).
Five regional reports were also released with the larger report in order to address issues specific to the County’s five service regions: West, North Penn, East, Central, and Southeast.
The ten organizations that came together to fund the needs assessment expect the effort to inspire a more collaborative and efficient process for exploring ways of developing a common agenda, as well as to prioritize needs. The coalition members intend to use the report to stimulate productive conversations among county residents and the organizations that serve them. While the coalition members will use the needs assessment to guide their grantmaking direction and priorities, they are hopeful that the report and its recommendations will be used by all organizations, in both the private and the public sectors that serve the county’s residents.
The members of the coalition currently support services provided in Montgomery County. They are:
The Independence Foundation;
Merck and Company, Inc.;
Montgomery County Foundation, Inc.;
Montgomery County Human Services Administration;
North Penn United Way;
North Penn Community Health Foundation;
The Philadelphia Foundation;
The Phoenixville Community Health Foundation;
United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania; and
United Way of Western Montgomery County.
More than 300 individuals participated in key informant sessions and focus groups. The researchers took advantage of the wealth of existing data sources available, as well as studies and reports that have been completed by various groups that address health, social service, educational, and arts and cultural needs in the county. The researchers also incorporated the experiences and insights of health and human services providers and those seeking services into their findings and recommendations. In addition, the coalition asked the research team to use the framework of the “Healthy People 2010” national initiative to guide their assessment. Distilling this wealth of information into a readable, usable report and developing a set of recommendations that are concrete and easily implemented were the most challenging parts of the assessment process, according to those involved in the research.
The president of one of the report’s funding partners, Russell Johnson of the North Penn Community Health Foundation, said, “We hope that others in the private, nonprofit and public sectors will join us in using this report as a resource and in addressing the priorities it identifies.” Johnson said that even though Montgomery County is the second most affluent county in Pennsylvania and among the most affluent in the nation, money alone is not sufficient for assuring success.
“There seems to be a disconnect,” said Johnson, “given the resources present in the County and the commitment of its residents and service providers to address problems . . . one would expect more.” According to the research, poverty rates are rising even as median incomes increase, which is widening the gaps in access to healthcare, quality of life and opportunities between the county’s advantaged and disadvantaged.
Low-income residents and minorities, concentrated in more financially disadvantaged boroughs, have birth and mortality statistics significantly worse than the rest of the county. An African-American child living in Montgomery County is almost three times as likely as a white child to die before his or her first birthday.
The report also shows that the County fares poorly on measures of environmental quality, ranking worse than 80 percent of the counties in the U.S. in chemical releases and waste generation; and worse than 90 percent of the counties in air releases of recognized carcinogens and in pollution impairment on watersheds. Research and interviews that were part of the assessment process showed that many residents consider the major quality-of-life concerns to be sprawl, traffic congestion and loss of open space and natural areas – conditions that continue to worsen.
The report outlines three structural challenges that must be faced in addressing the health and human services needs of the County’s residents:
The jurisdictional complexity of governmental units in Southeastern Pennsylvania (i.e., counties, townships, boroughs, school districts, etc.), which can result in the fragmentation and duplication of services and can also impede regional planning and development.
The concentration of the economically disadvantaged in a relatively few municipalities, which adds to the cost of addressing their needs and undermines the effectiveness of those efforts.
Financial pressures and demands for efficiency, which have narrowed the focus of health and human services agencies, have reduced their ability to respond effectively to the complex needs of those they serve.
More information about the conclusions and recommendations can be found on pages 100-112 of the report.
The director of the research, Professor David Barton Smith of the Department of Risk, Insurance and Healthcare Management at Temple’s Fox School of Business, writes in the report that “evidence suggests that it takes a sustained and coordinated investment to help those trapped in the shadows of a cycle of disadvantage. They have multiple needs that cross professional, bureaucratic and governance boundaries,” said Smith. “Narrowly focused efforts do not work: they are mistakenly thought to be more cost effective.” Smith said that, “While we all wish for a magical vaccine that would make complex, difficult health and social problems disappear cheaply, life does not work that way.”
The report suggests ways to improve existing efforts to address the County’s unmet needs. It starts by listing where most of the key informants and focus groups said they would like all of these efforts to lead in 20 years and then working backwards. After describing longer-term goals, the report then identifies the intermediate-term opportunities and, finally, the immediate priority needs that must be addressed.
Professor Smith noted that the report’s recommendations borrow from the framework outlined by the “Healthy People 2010” national initiative described and available on the Internet at http://www.healthypeople.gov/. The initiative states two overarching long-term goals which this assessment has also adopted.
Increase quality of life years; and
Eliminate the economic, racial and ethnic disparities in health in the nation’s population.
Wendy David, Executive Director of United Way of Western Montgomery County, another report coalition sponsor, said her organization plans to use this report as a blueprint and guiding document over the next several years. “We certainly cannot take on everything in this report,” she said, “but if a number of organizations each aligned their strategic plans and missions to address the needs outlined in the report, we can make a difference.”
Access the report.
