The Illinois Project for Local Assessment of Needs (IPLAN) is a community health assessment and planning program to identify health needs of community by community members and design a community health plan to address these needs.

The Kane County Community Health Committee was formed in April of 2005, under the leadership of the Kane County Health Department, to identify public health problems affecting the community as a whole and to formulate a plan to address these public health problems. The Committee identified the following areas as top priorities:

Improve access to health care for those who do not have health insurance:     Kane County has an adequate array of hospitals, doctors and other medical care services, but those without insurance face difficulty in finding affordable care and help with paying for prescriptions and related health care services. Four goals were set to address this issue built around the successful KCHAIN initiative:

 E   Eliminate the disparity in African American infant mortality:        Kane County, overall, has one of the lowest infant mortality rates among Illinois counties, but mortality of African American infants is three times the white rate and teen births are one-third higher. The 2002 low-birth weight rate (LBW) in Kane for African Americans, at 14.2 percent, is more than double that of Hispanics and the white population. Also, the overall LBW rate in Kane County, at 7.2 percent, is more than 40 percent higher than the national goal. 

Reduce the level of chronic disease:     Cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic lung and respiratory disease, along with accidents, are the five leading causes of death in Kane County, accounting for 70 percent of all deaths to our residents. Most chronic diseases start early in life, progressing silently with minimal symptoms to the point where they eventually require medical attention. The consequences of chronic disease are largely avoidable or at least can be postponed to later in life if preventive measures are taken earlier on. 

Improve availability of community mental health services: It is estimated that more than 80,000 Kane County residents need mental health services each year to treat a variety of short term and chronic mental health conditions ranging from emotional disorders, to depression, psychosis, and alcohol dependence. While Kane County has a wide array of private and public mental health services they are not well coordinated, unevenly distributed, under-funded, and often not accessible to those without insurance. 

Maintain core public health protection services:       Core public health services often function in the background, silently protecting the community against communicable diseases and environmental hazards, both accidental and terrorist intended. Unless there is a significant disease outbreak, major food contamination, or environmental threat, the public is usually not aware that the local health department is at work around the clock protecting the community. But, cases of communicable disease, food-borne illness, and environmental hazards, such as West Nile Virus, regularly occur in Kane County.