For Immediate Release: 6/20/2023 4:08 pm
The Greater Worcester Regional Community Health Assessment (CHA) will soon have a new look and feel, and it will now be facilitated by the Worcester Division of Public Health (WDPH) in conjunction with offices across the Worcester Department of Health & Human Services.
The CHA aims to identify community health issues, barriers to care, disparities in health outcomes, vulnerable populations, and gaps in the health service system across the Central Massachusetts Regional Public Health Alliance. Previously, it was produced every three years by UMass Memorial Health as the lead agency in partnership with Fallon Health, Hanover Insurance, the Coalition for a Healthy Greater Worcester, and WDPH. Each organization will still be involved, but WDPH will now take a more hands-on role in data collection and community engagement through the newly formed Office of Data, Research, and Epidemiology (ODRE).
The decision for WDPH to assume facilitation of the CHA was borne out of its capacity and goal to produce a tool that can be maintained continuously rather than every three years and to have a more up-to-date and in-depth understanding of the community’s health needs.
“The data we collect in the CHA informs so much of WDPH’s work and vision. Managing it internally allows us to control its scope—to be as broad or focused as need. It also positions WDPH as the source of the most up-to-date information, enabling it to build trust with residents and partners. We can be more nimble and better able to respond to community needs,” said Deputy Commissioner of Health & Human Services and former Acting Director of Public Health Zach Dyer, Ph.D.
WDPH plans to continue producing a printed CHA report, but it will also now be supplemented with an interactive online tool. Live data dashboards will be updated on a regular basis to keep residents and community partners updated on the most pressing health issues and priorities.
“The increased availability of data is exciting, and I foresee the dashboard helping many local organizations and residents. It allows us to provide more data on health topics that would be limited by a print-only version and expand the public’s access to critical health data. Consistent monitoring of these data will inform our work and allow us to be timely,” said Chief of Data, Research, and Epidemiology Nikki Nixon.
In addition to influencing actionable solutions that will be developed in the next Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), the CHA’s ongoing updates will be readily accessible for public uses including academic coursework and grant proposal composition.
WDPH assembled an advisory committee made up of about 50 community partners that began meeting in March. The committee is tasked with developing the scope of the CHA based on the most useful information and data to shape community health programming and planning. It will help determine public survey questions and which health outcomes and indicators to include.
The new CHA is expected to be available to the public by October 2023 and will include data around the health impact of COVID-19 and the perspectives of residents disproportionately affected by the pandemic. The dashboards will be fed in part by existing public data sources such as the U.S. Census and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention databases, which allows it to update in real-time when those sources are refreshed.
Facilitation of the CHA has been enshrined in the upcoming WDPH/CMRPHA strategic plan as part of an overall goal to reduce health inequities and promote racial justice. One avenue to accomplish that goal is establishing a CHA and CHIP process for each of the Alliance towns, with a focus on elevating voices and stories of neglected populations by directly engaging with populations with lived experience.
“By making this change now and managing the CHA through the ODRE, WDPH is ahead of the curve by organizing its own epidemiological structure to better understand and communicate community needs. This emphasis on epidemiology to inform local public health will soon be required based on upcoming state mandate, and we will be well positioned to fulfill that,” said Dyer.
