Community Health Assessment (CHA)

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: 

 

We face challenges related to a range of health and community issues.  

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. 

 

We can take steps to address these challenges by prioritizing the biggest concerns. 

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 Disease 

Prioritizing helps us make concrete change in key areas. There are lots of areas that still need support, like affordable housing, food access, and stable jobs. We see many of these areas as connected and know that ongoing public health work will help us make an impact in these areas, too. 

 

What happens next?  

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.  

Now we need to work together to create a plan in each of these areas. If you spend a lot of time thinking about or working on one of these issues, we need your ideas! Let us know you’re interested in participating on a planning committee by filling out this form, by calling (804) 774-9776, or by e-mailing our Community Health Assessment Coordinator at jasmine.carmichael@vdh.virginia.gov. 

If you’d like to stay up-to-date on the CHIP process, you can subscribe to RHHD’s newsletter! 

 

View or Download the CHA Results Highlights

Download the CHA Results Highlights

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