State health officials are undergoing the process to earn a higher accreditation and they need the help of the citizens of Selma and Dallas County to not only earn that accreditation, but to help them better serve the people living here.

Jackie R. Holliday, area administrator for the Alabama Department of Public Health, will speak during the Dallas County Commissioners meeting Monday, and he said he plans to speak to the commissioners about a community health issues survey ADPH has created to better understand the needs and health concerns of the community.

“There are just a handful of public health entities across the country that have been accredited,” Holliday said. “Step one of that process is the survey we have developed that we would love for the citizens of this county to complete. From this information we will be developing a strategic plan to address the health concerns that have been identified statewide and we certainly want to have the voice of our rural parts of the state heard.”

Holliday said the accreditation, which is given through the Public Health Accreditation Board, would help the ADPH learn how it could improve the performance of their services to the public.

“This is a very comprehensive process,” Holliday said. “We want to make sure we have a good amount of responses.”

Holliday said the health survey, which includes general demographics questions and asks the participant to ranks a number of health issues from most concerning to least, is simple and straight-forward and would not take too much time to complete.

“They can complete it online, and it will make all the calculations and tabulations, or it can be completed on paper,” Holliday said. “It wouldn’t take someone 10 minutes to complete. From their responses, we will come back some months from now and share this information with the public during some community meetings and seeking their input of the results of the survey.”

Holliday said residents have until the end of the month to either fill out a paper copy of the survey at the Dallas County Health Department’s office located at 100 Samuel O. Moseley Drive in Selma, or online at http://bit.ly/1cqyvEr.