Town Administrator Chas Carey and Director of Public Health and Human Services Sigalle Reiss announce the release of Brookline’s 2023-2024 Community Health Assessment (CHA). This report combines multiple data sources to describe the social drivers of health and associated positive and negative impacts currently affecting the Brookline community.
The CHA aimed to gain a greater understanding of the issues faced by the Brookline community, how those issues are currently being addressed, and where there are gaps and opportunities to address these issues in the future. Findings from this report are already being used for a Community Health Improvement and Action Planning process, which will be finalized this winter.
The Brookline Department of Public Health and Human Services (BDPHHS) commissioned this process using funds received from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). BDPHHS partnered with Boston-based Health Resources in Action (HRiA) [1], a non-profit public health organization that provides research, evaluation, strategic planning, and program support services around the country. Under the guidance of a Steering Committee, HRiA conducted interviews and focus groups with community members on topics related to education, housing, transportation, racial equity, food security, and many others. Qualitative data were integrated with quantitative data from government sources, including the Massachusetts Community Health Equity Survey conducted by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in the summer of 2023.
The main findings of the 80+ page report include:
* Community members regard Brookline as a well-educated, affluent, and culturally diverse community with good walkability, access to public transportation, health services, cultural offerings, excellent public schools, plentiful green space, and a welcoming community.
* Brookline is listed among Massachusetts’s top 20 (out of 351) cities and towns with the highest per capita income. However, over 10 percent of Brookline residents live 100 percent below the federal poverty level (FPL), and over 17 percent live below 200 percent of the FPL. In 2023, 19 percent of Brookline adults reported having high or very high psychological distress in the past month, 6 percent reported usually or always feeling isolated from others, and 3.5 percent reported suicidal ideation.
* In 2023, 12.8 percent of Brookline High School students reported seriously considering suicide in the past year, and 7.6 percent had made
a suicide plan. Nearly 30 percent of BHS students reported feeling so sad or hopeless every day for at least two weeks that they stopped doing
some usual activities in the past year. Many participants and interviewees highlighted the lack of access to mental health services and resources as a major issue.
A community-engaged assessment process, including a prioritization process following a presentation of key findings of this assessment, highlighted the following areas as the most important to address in a Community Health Improvement Planning process:
* Housing Affordability
* Financial Security
* Mental and Behavioral Health
* Access to Social and Health Services
It was recommended that racial equity should be considered as a cross-cutting theme for all priorities and that special considerations
the planning process should include special populations like older adults and BIPOC residents.
“We look forward to continuing to engage Brookline residents and community partners in developing the Community Health Improvement and
Action Plans,” said BDPHHS Director Sigalle Reiss.
“This report is just the start, enabling us to make data-informed decisions about what initiatives and changes will have the most positive impact in the Brookline community.” Town Administrator Chas Carey added, “The breadth of the report helps us engage partners
from various sectors, and we look forward to working across agencies and organizations to plan how to address the important issues that arose from the report and community-informed Prioritization Process.”
The full CHA report can be found here [2].