STORY BY JOY PRUDEK

PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

St. Luke’s St. Luke’s has released its 2026 Community Health Needs Assessments, identifying the highest priority health needs facing communities across southern Idaho.

The health system plans to work on a coordinated approach to address them.

Every three years, St. Luke’s conducts such assessments to better understand the most significant health challenges affecting the communities it serves. These assessments draw on surveys, focus groups, interviews and existing health data to identify key health themes and needs.

The 2026 assessments reflect an expanded effort led by St. Luke’s, in partnership with South Central Public Health District and Family Health Services to help increase participation and ensure broad community representation in the process.

“The goal of this work is to listen carefully to our community and better understand the challenges people are facing,” said Sarah Seppa, director of community engagement at St. Luke’s Wood River. “Partnering with organizations that are deeply connected to the communities we serve helps ensure a more complete and representative picture of local health needs.”

The top three priorities across Blaine County and the Magic Valley were:

Behavioral health

Housing

Access to care

“These priorities reflect challenges we are seeing across the region,” said Kyli Gough, director of community engagement, for St. Luke’s Magic Valley and St. Luke’s Jerome.  “Behavioral health, housing and access to care are closely connected, and addressing them will take ongoing collaboration with community partners.”

In Blaine County, community feedback highlighted barriers such as limited access to providers, transportation challenges, and the impact of housing costs on overall health and well-being.

In Twin Falls and Jerome Counties, community members emphasized the need for more mental health resources and support in an area with high rates of depression and anxiety. They also highlighted the stress and instability of housing issues.

St. Luke’s will use these findings to develop implementation plans, working alongside community partners to focus on prevention, expand access to services and address social drivers of health. Any business or organization that would like to collaborate with St. Luke's on helping to address a high priority health need should email communityhealth@slhs.org.

Implementation strategies will be developed and published by the end of 2026.

Read the full reports at https://stlukesonline.org/en/healthier-communities/commitments-and-impact/community-health-needs-assessments/.