Strategies

Laying the foundation for the next decade means Strategic Planning.

Once a largely rural area, DuPage County has grown to include nearly 900,000 residents of increasingly diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. While nearly 85,000 senior citizens make their home in DuPage, the county welcomes over 1,000 newborns each month. Health needs range from assuring healthy pregnancies to monitoring diabetes and hypertension in our oldest residents. 

How can one health department do the best it possibly can to assure the health needs of all of its residents?

“The past ten years in public health have been a time of evolution and change, the next ten will present significant challenges,” said Executive Director Leland Lewis. “It was clear that managing our resources for the next decade required strategic planning to identify the specific needs of our community, and develop strategies to meet those needs. This requires involving all community resources and optimizing our efforts.”

With the 1999 Illinois Project for the Local Assessment of Needs as a foundation, Health Department staff began the new year by plunging into the creation of a strategic plan for the next five years. IPLAN had identified the top five health priorities in DuPage as untreated mental illness and depression, domestic violence, coronary heart disease, child abuse and neglect, and indoor air quality.

According to Mr. Lewis, the knowledge gained from IPLAN was incorporated with the knowledge and leadership of staff, and guided by three basic concepts of public health identified by the Institute of Medicine landmark report: “The Future of Public Health.” This report suggests that the three roles for the public health system are:

1) assessment 
 2) policy development 
 3) assurance

“Our strategic plan will not be placed on the shelf 
to collect dust, it is a working document,” said 
Mr. Lewis. “Strategic planning is an ongoing 
function that allows us to continuously assess community health status, identify strategic challenges and opportunities, and formulate goals and objectives. Our strategic plan sets in motion a process for identifying our aspirations, where we want to be in the future, and what is needed to get there.”

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