From 2010 to early 2013, under the leadership of the Pima County Health Department, organizations and community members engaged in a comprehensive community health assessment and improvement planning process. The goal of this intensive, community-driven process was to examine the current health needs of Pima County residents and determine how to best address them.

This report is a summary of the Pima County Community Health Assessment that was conducted in 2011. As facilitator, the Pima County Health Department examined existing data describing the community, surveyed residents and stakeholders about their perceptions of the health status of Pima County, and presented these findings to the Community Health Assessment Taskforce. The community members who comprised the taskforce evaluated the information and identified five priorities that would make a significant positive impact on the health status of Pima County residents.

Assessing and addressing the public’s changing needs is a challenging task. The Health Department uses a variety of measures to evaluate program accomplishments while holding itself accountable to the taxpayers. The economic challenges faced by the County and its residents require the Department to rely more on quality improvement approaches to maximize the limited resources. Here are some highlights of the Health Department’s achievements in efficiently providing needed public health services.

Concern has been expressed that mesquite bosques are disappearing or diminishing in quality, and that the survival of the mesquite mouse is consequently threatened. This study, funded by a grant from the Arizona Heritage Fund to the Pima County Regional Flood Control District, investigated the current distribution of the mesquite mouse by reviewing historical records from museum specimens, examining existing potential habitat at historic locations of the species and elsewhere in the county, and conducting a live-trapping study at 19 sites representing a range of ecological communities with mesquite as a major component.

This contains two reports. The first is by authors from Statistical Research, Inc. that provides background information on the definition and application of the traditional cultural places designation under the National Historic Preservation Act. The second report is from the National Forest Service and expands on the first with examples of how traditional cultural places can be considered as part of land management planning.

This report is one of several from Statistical Research Inc. written to develop the Cultural and Historic Resources Element of the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. Divided into four parts, the report summarizes available information that reflects the experience of (1) ancient peoples of Southern Arizona; (2) indigenous peoples; (3) non-indigenous peoples of the historical period; and (4) Pima County today.