HealthyJoCo Updates
May 2025
What’s in this edition:
Team Celebrations,
Recent Assessment Updates and Results,
Health Improvement Updates and Efforts, and
Advocacy Opportunity.
Celebrations
Public Health Conference of Iowa
The Public Health Conference of Iowa is the state’s annual event for public health professionals to share research, explore best practices, and foster collaboration. This year’s conference celebrated 100 years of impact, reflecting on Iowa’s public health progress while shaping its future. This year Jamie, Giselle, Lisa, and Peyton had the opportunity to present at the conference.
Shaping Future Health Leaders: A Data-Driven Blueprint for Community Well-Being and CHA/CHIP skill Development
Jamie and Giselle shared how Johnson County Public Health's HealthyJoCo team developed an innovative training program designed to build public health capacity through hands-on engagement with Community Health Assessment (CHA) and Community Health Improvement Planning (CHIP). Tailored for current and emerging public health professionals, the training strengthens skills in community engagement, data analysis, and health priority setting, with practical steps for replicating the model in other communities.
Reflect, Reset, Renew: A Path to Mental Wellness
Giselle and Lisa shared how Johnson County Public Health has partnered with CredibleMind to provide residents with a free, self-guided, evidence-based mental wellness platform. This resource empowers individuals to explore personalized strategies, build resilience, and support their mental health at their own pace—promoting accessible, proactive wellness throughout the community. Learn more at healthyjoco.crediblemind.com.
HealthyJoCo Food Security Assessment
Peyton had the opportunity to present on the 2024 Food Security Assessment, which was a pilot project that was focused on understanding food insecurity in Johnson County.
HealthyJoCo in KU’s Community Tool Box
The Community Tool Box was started at the University of Kansas over 25 years ago and continues to be a free, online collection of public health tools that have been created and shared by members of the public health community. The purpose of the Community Tool Box is to build capacity for community health improvement. HealthyJoco is honored to be featured and share our experience of involving many key influencers, partners, and community members into out data triangulation process, resulting in 13 issue profiles. Read more on the MAPP 2.0 framework we follow and other examples HERE.
Assessments and Findings
Food Distribution & Waste Assessment
The HealthyJoCo Food Security Committee conducted a Food Distribution and Waste Assessment to better understand where food pantries in Johnson County source their food and how they manage food waste. Using a Qualtrics survey distributed by email and phone, 13 pantries participated. The data revealed insights based on pantry size—neighborhood vs. large community pantries—using proportional analysis to account for response differences. Read the full report HERE.
Community Well Being & Support Survey
Johnson County Public Health wants to learn how you access mental healthcare in the community. Your input will help local organizations better understand how Johnson County residents seek support for emotional wellbeing and the challenges they encounter, helping to shape and improve future services. The anonymous survey includes questions about demographics, awareness and access to resources, and community perceptions—there are no right or wrong answers, just your honest experiences. Please take 5 minutes to complete the survey
Scan the QR or click here to complete the assessment today. For additional mental health resources visit CredibleMind, Johnson Counties free mental wellness platform.
Have you used HealthyJoCo Data or information for your work? We want to know! Take this 2 minute survey to tell us your experience: https://johnsoncountyiowa.iad1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_a5WANzX2sGvDjjE
Priority Updates
Healthcare Access
What We’re Reading: The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine. The author has had a way of capturing my attention with stories of patients, while unpacking the system each patient experienced in receiving (or not receiving) health care. Ricardo Nuila embeds information about the history of health insurance, health care, and hospitals in the United States throughout the first 1/3 of the book.
Some of our team will be attending the Culturally Responsive Health Care in Iowa: Global is Local: Focusing the Lens on Cancer Conference at the University of Iowa on June 5th. More information about the conference is here. Come say hi if you see us!
The next Healthcare Access meeting is Monday, June 9th. If you're interested to learn more, email Jamie Gade at jgade@johnsoncountyiowa.gov.
Mental Health
The Community Wellbeing & Support Survey is active through May 31st, with a total of 137 responses collected so far and a final goal of 500. The survey will be available in English, Spanish, French, and Arabic as of May 7th. Please feel free to share!
Lisa and Giselle are supporting Johnson County System of Care by taking meeting notes and facilitating the virtual attendance for hybrid meetings.
Our Team will be at the NAMI walk on May 10th to do surveying and talk about CredibleMind
Since CredibleMind Launch there has been a total of 2,687 users, and 958 assessments taken. The most popular topic centers were: #1. Stress, #2. Anxiety, and #3. Burnout
The next Mental Health Committee Meeting is Wednesday, May 21st. If you’re interested to learn more, email Lisa Parlato at lparlato@johnsoncountyiowa.gov.
Built Environment: Housing
Haley is leading a context assessment involving one-on-one meetings with community partners, including members of the Local Homelessness Coordinating Board, to discuss gaps and needs identified in serving individuals experiencing homelessness.
Haley and Lisa are supporting the LHCB Discovery Committee by sharing assessment data/insights and taking meeting notes.
The next Housing Committee Meeting is Tuesday, May 27th. If interested to learn more, email Haley Wilson at hwilson@johnsoncountyiowa.gov.
Food Security
Food Security Committee is currently reviewing and finalizing questions for the 2025 Food Security Assessment to launch on Monday, May 19th.
The next Food Security Committee Meeting is Thursday, May 15th. If interested to learn more, email Giselle Coreas at gcoreas@johnsoncountyiowa.gov.
Advocacy
IHAWP Amendment Public Comment Opportunity
Iowa is requesting CMS to review new work requirements for people enrolled in the Iowa Health and Wellness Plan (IHAWP) via a Demonstration amendment to CMS—and the State wants to hear from the public.
There’s time to voice your opinion and impact this plan amendment may have on you, your organization, and people you serve.
Public comments are open through May 15 at 4:30 PM. Community input can shape how this Demonstration amendment impacts Iowans.
Email:
QIMP_Public_Comment@hhs.Iowa.gov
Mail:
Quality Initiative and Medical Policy Team
Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, Iowa Medicaid
321 East 12th St
Des Moines, IA 50319
Why it matters:
IHAWP provides Medicaid coverage to low-income Iowans. The proposed amendment would require many on this plan to:
Work 100 hours/month or earn wages = 100 hrs × minimum wage
Be in a job training/education program
Enrolled in and compliant with Iowa’s Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) work requirements
Or be exempt from SNAP work requirements
More information about the amendment can be found here.
We Know That: Access to insurance helps folks in the long term have better health outcomes.
Research shows:
Insurance boosts preventive care and outcomes (Freeman et al., 2008)
Medicaid expansion helped hospitals stay afloat (Blavin, 2016)
In Arkansas, similar rules led to 18,000+ people losing coverage—with little to no employment gains (Sommers et al., 2019)