Staff from the Department of Health and Human Services presented results of a city-run community health needs assessment to the Board of Health on Sept. 18, saying the survey reached 2,244 respondents and that mental health, access to health care, dental care for lower-income residents and housing affordability were among the top community concerns.

“Kyle” (the department analyst who led the study) told the board the assessment combined a literature review, stakeholder interviews and a community survey run from last fall through spring. “Our goal when we launched was to reach 5,000 Northampton residents,” Kyle said, noting the final response of 2,244 provided a large sample for analysis. The survey asked about personal and dependent health concerns, health-care access, mental health, community strengths and weaknesses, and demographics.

Major findings: Mental health was the top health concern overall and was especially prominent among respondents younger than 50 and those reporting on dependents 0–18; nearly 70% of respondents reported increased anxiety or stress over the prior two years, Kyle said. Access to providers — specifically long wait times and difficulty finding clinicians accepting new patients — was the primary barrier to both primary and mental health care for respondents. Dental care emerged as the top concern for households under the Massachusetts income threshold of $50,000; cost and lack of insurance were the most-cited barriers.

Housing and community needs: More than half of respondents said more affordable, higher-quality housing would improve quality of life in Northampton. While rental respondents reported landlord responsiveness generally meeting legal expectations, many renters reported inadequate home cooling at times and said heat affected health and productivity. Respondents also cited social connection and “third places” — informal public gathering places — as important to community mental health.

Equity and subpopulations: The presentation noted 106 survey respondents self-identified as transgender; that group reported higher rates of discrimination when seeking care (65%) and had greater overlap with younger, lower-income and renter populations. Stakeholder interviews and the literature review also flagged substance use disorder as a significant community weakness.

Next steps and uses: Department staff said they will publish the full report and topic-specific briefs, share results with City Council and local health partners (including Cooley Dickinson Hospital’s Healthy Communities program), and use the data to inform program priorities, potential funding requests and collaborations — for example, expanding case management and social-connection programming, targeting mental-health clinician access and exploring mobile or school-based dental services. Board members and staff discussed coordinating these findings with other local evaluations (UMass evaluations of DCC services and emergency-services data) and potential funding streams for implementation.

Board response: Members praised the survey’s scope and suggested using the findings to inform policy requests and recruitment strategies for primary care and mental-health clinicians. The board asked staff to continue outreach to partners and to prepare public-facing summaries for policymakers and residents.