Strengthening Communities for a Healthier Boston

Mass General Brigham in 2019 helped establish the first city-wide community health needs assessment (CHNA). This collaborative aimed to identify the most pressing issues that affect the health of Boston residents, with a focus on the economic, social, and environmental factors that impact health. 

While Boston has many strengths when it comes to improving the health of its communities, the assessment found areas for improvement. We helped identify three priority areas for action, developing a community health improvement plan (CHIP): 

• Access to essential health care and social services 
• Affordable housing 
• Economic mobility 

The CHIP-CHNA collaborative found: 

• The top community health concerns of respondents were housing quality/affordability (51%) and alcohol/drug abuse (49%)
• Opioid overdose deaths have increased significantly over five years and are highest among Latino residents (50.5 deaths/100,000 residents)
• Cancer and heart disease are the leading causes of death, respectively, across every race/ethnicity
• Nearly half of respondents see education as a key component of a healthy community

Backed by this data about our communities, Mass General Brigham is better equipped to address the needs of our diverse patient populations.