Last Updated: October 7, 2024
Through Summer 2024, the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts worked closely with healthcare professionals, partner organizations, subject matter experts, and residents across our neighborhoods to conduct a Community Health Assessment. This important public health practice teaches us what issues matter most to you so that we can take informed action.
1,126 residents—including 465 people from Henrico and 661 from Richmond—completed the survey. Here’s what we learned:
What is our main problem?
Residents could pick up to 3 health challenges that they saw as most concerning in their communities. You chose the following most often:
- Violence: 418 responses, or 34.8% of respondents
- Chronic health conditions: 389 responses, or 32.4% of respondents
- Mental health issues: 384 responses, or 31.9% of respondents
- Access to healthcare services and providers: 298 responses, or 24.8% of respondents
- Spreadable diseases: 259 responses, or 21.5% of respondents
These answers gave us important insight about the challenges residents experience most and help us start putting a plan together to address them.
What do we need to do?
Looking at these survey results, along with other community data, our CHA Steering Committee chose three areas as priorities for improvement planning:
- Mental Health, including Substance Use Disorder
- Community Safety and Violence Prevention
- Chronic Diseases
Now we need to work together to create a plan in each of these areas. If you feel strongly about one of these priorities, we need you to join our planning efforts. Let us know you’re interested in participating on a planning committee by filling out this form.
Why is it important for us to do this?
CHA Coordinator Jasmine Carmichael says that listening to the community is about more than learning what’s wrong. It’s about listening to the great ideas for change and progress each of us has when it comes to our neighborhoods. “Sometimes institutions create programming that doesn’t do what we want it to because community members weren’t involved in the decision-making process,” Jasmine says.
Keep coming back to this newsletter for more information about each of the priority areas so that we can learn, build, and make change together!
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