ROOT CAUSE/INFLUENCE ANALYSIS

Participants of the forum were divided into eight breakout groups. Each participant was given the opportunity to choose which group they wanted to attend. The groups are as follows:

• Disability
• Communicable Disease
• Maternal/Child Health
• Substance Abuse
• Adult Mental Health
• Children's Mental Health
• Chronic Disease
• Injury and Abuse

Each group had a facilator and a scribe to document the input. Facilitators began each session by reviewing the tasks of each group. Next a round robin session ensued where each person introduced themselves and identified one key concern or problem for issue area they were in. Each response was recorded and is documented as a Key Concern. The purpose of this exercise is to identify unique concerns within each issue.

Next facilitators presented a definition of "root causes" and reviewed charts with the categories of root causes (1 per chart). The categories were as follows: physical environment, individual behavior/lifestyle choice, biology, psycho-social environment, health care system, spiritual, and economic. Each group was asked to list one or two root causes under each category just to demonstrate and get the group thinking. Each root cause was written on a sticky note and posted on the chart. A root cause could be listed under more than one category if necessary.

Each individual was given a small stack of sticky notes as they brainstormed, posting their ideas on the appropriate chart. As people posted their ideas they were organized next to related ideas and the facilitator circled those sticky notes that were "clumped". Each participant was then given seven colored dots and asked to place the dots by the 7 root causes THAT THIS COMMUNITY CAN CHANGE and that they personally believe would have the greatest positive impact on the community as a whole.

The facilitator then identified the root causes with the most dots.