CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Department of Health and Human Resources’ Bureau for Public Health begins hosting eight listening sessions across the state Friday as part of the 2023 State Health Assessment.
The assessment is an online survey that asks residents about public health issues in their area.
State Health Officer Dr. Matthew Christiansen told MetroNews the survey deadline has been extended until Wednesday because they’ve received a lot of interest. The original deadline to take the survey was Oct. 9.
“We got a lot of interest in the last week, so we decided to extend it out one more week to give people more of an opportunity to respond to the survey,” he said.
The first listening session will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday at the Ohio County Courthouse in Wheeling. Christiansen said his team is interested in hearing from residents in-person in addition to reading written responses.
“The listening sessions get us out into the community to hear and get some qualitative data to understand the texture around the data that we’re seeing here in the state with regards to some of the health issues that are important to West Virginia,” he said.
The survey focuses on more than health-related issues, Christiansen said.
“It involves things like housing, food and nutrition security, poverty, workforce and religious/spiritual connections, so all of those things go into a well-rounded view of health that we are going to incorporate into this plan,” he said.
The last State Health Assessment was done in 2012.
This assessment provides two surveys — one for residents and one for community groups.
“They might be special interest groups, hospital systems, local health departments, homeless shelters or food banks. That helps us understand some of the barriers to delivering those services,” Christiansen said.
The DHHR plans to use the survey results to identify 3-5 priority areas to focus their efforts on going forward. Those areas will then be developed into a five-year plan.
The survey is available HERE through Wednesday, Oct. 18.
The listening sessions are scheduled as follows:
Oct. 13 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. — Ohio County Courthouse in Wheeling
Oct. 16 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. — Marshall University Memorial Student Center in Huntington
Oct. 19 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. — Mineral County Health Department in Keyser
Oct. 26 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. — Kanawha County Library in Charleston
Oct. 27 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. — WVU-Parkersburg in Parkersburg
Nov. 2 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. — Raleigh County Public Library in Beckley
Nov. 8 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. — Morgantown Public Library in Morgantown
Nov. 9 from 12-2 p.m. — Upshur County Public Library in Buckhannon