Houston Community Health Assessment (CHA)
Houston Health Department (HHD) engaged several partners in the process of Houston Community Health Assessment (CHA). The HHD’s current CHA has evolved into three formats:
- State of Health Houston Harris County Report, 2015-2016
- Community Health Assessment Data Report, 2018
- Houston State of Health Data Portal, on-going
There were eight sponsoring agencies involved in the development of the State of Health Houston Harris County Report, which serves as the primary CHA document. These include the HHD, Harris County Health Care Alliance, Episcopal Health Foundation, Harris County Public Health (HCPH), University of Texas School of Public Health, Center for Health Services Research Institute for Health Policy, Harris Health system, Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority of Harris County, and Harris County Pollution Control. All agencies contributed in conducting the CHA by providing content, by identifying topic areas, by providing data and analysis help, and by providing overall guidance for creating the report.
After Hurricane Harvey in 2017, HHD also conducted a Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER) in two neighborhoods to better understand disaster preparedness, damage assessment and disaster recovery in 2019 and 2020. CASPER is a post-disaster rapid assessment methodology originally developed by World Health Organization (WHO) and subsequently adapted by Centers for Diseases Control (CDC). As the CHA is an evolving process, the two reports on the CASPER assessments also serve as a new addition to CHA.
