Wellbeing of Somerville Report 2017 Outlines City’s Health Status
Lisa Brukilacchio, Director, Somerville Community Health Agenda, Serena Chao, MD, Chief of Geriatrics at CHA, Mary Cassesso, CHA’s Chief Community Officer and Foundation President, Patrick Wardell, CHA CEO, and Doug Kress, Director of Health and Human Services.
SOMERVILLE, Mass. — Cambridge Health Alliance in collaboration with the City of Somerville and a variety of health focused coalitions and other members of the Somerville community, released the Wellbeing of Somerville Report 2017 on Monday, November 20.
Almost 90 people attended a celebration to launch the report at the Center for Arts at the Armory in Somerville. The program featured comments from Mayor Joseph Curtatone and CHA CEO Patrick Wardell and Chief Community Officer Mary Cassesso as well as interactive activities to set the stage for the next phase of the report — moving the recommendations into action.
The Wellbeing of Somerville Report provides readers with a summary of the City of Somerville’s health and serves as a tool for local leaders, community agency members/directors, community members and other stakeholders to continue learning together about Somerville’s community and public health issues. It attempts to both inform and inspire action to improve the community’s future wellbeing through collaborative discussion and sharing of ideas. The 2017 report highlights data across the stages of life from prenatal to older adult, integrated with public health and social determinants topics.
"Data-driven decision making is at the core of who we are and the data recorded in the Wellbeing Report gives us an opportunity to begin a community wide dialogue about the health of our city and the steps we want to take to improve it," said Mayor Joseph Curtatone. "Taking cues from our SomerVision process, we're excited to embark on a collaborative planning process alongside fellow government agencies, health care and community partners, and our residents to identify community health priorities and develop a comprehensive Community Health Improvement Plan."
“CHA’s mission is to improve the health of the communities we serve, and we are honored to take part in this initiative to better understand the drivers of health in Somerville across the lifespan,” said Cambridge Health Alliance CEO Patrick Wardell. “We look forward to learning together from the report about what factors are impacting the wellbeing of Somerville residents. As the health delivery system that cares for more than 25,000 Somerville residents annually, CHA is committed to working collaboratively on the next steps of this community health improvement process.”
The report represents the continuation of over 30 years of periodic review and analysis of Somerville public and community health data. The last community-wide health data report was published in 2011; a youth-focused edition was issued in 2006. For the 2017 report, the Somerville Community Health Agenda, part of CHA’s Community Health Improvement Department, collaborated with the City of Somerville’s Health & Human Services Department and community stakeholders to compile and analyze the data.