Dalton Health Board Seeks Responses to Confidential Survey
DALTON, Mass. — The town's Board of Health is seeking responses to its confidential health survey to better understand the overall health and well-being of its residents.
The board is conducting the survey to get a general idea of if there are any hotspots for environmentally related diseases within town, board member Matthew Bryan said.
One of the next steps the board is considering to spread the word about the survey is doing a direct delivery service via mail to every resident that will include a flyer with a QR code to the survey.
The data will be collected as confidentially as possible, with responses recorded at the household level instead of the individual level.
"We're trying to do it in as confidential a way as possible. We're not asking for like individuals' names, social security numbers, anything like that, just the address," he said.
The information will then be combined and analyzed to identify trends and areas where additional resources or attention may be needed.
Digital version of the survey here.
The board plans to have hard copies of the survey available at several locations throughout the town including the library, Senior Center, and the Community Recreation Association. There will also be a locked box for drop-off to ensure privacy, Hopper said.
The hope is the data will help the board figure out particular areas of interest they should focus on and develop targeted education campaigns for specific areas in town or identify conditions that may require greater public awareness and outreach.
The effort is in collaboration with the town's Emergency Management team as the work helps plan with emergency management, spreading awareness for reverse 911 and other things, board Chair Nancy Hopper said.
It also helps the town identify households that may require additional medical assistance during an emergency or disaster, Bryan said.
"For example, during a winter storm, [there may be a household] that needs access to a dialysis center, then we have that information now that their road needs priority plowing," he said.
"Or if there's a power outage and someone's on some sort of machine that requires power, then we know that that's a priority location for getting power restored or reaching out to them directly to get them hooked up with a generator."
According to the survey, this effort is part of an ongoing initiative to identify general health trends within the community, better understand potential environmental and quality-of-life factors, and improve emergency preparedness and response planning.
As data comes in, the board also hopes to collaborate with the CRA to deliver educational programming.
"So, there's a lot of directions we can go with the data once it's collected, depending on how comprehensive it is," Bryan said.
Several local businesses have also donated prizes to encourage residents to complete the survey, providing an added incentive for participation.
However, residents do not have to enter the drawing if they have privacy concerns, as participation requires providing a phone number for contact purposes, board members said.
Residents can still complete the survey without submitting their phone number; they just won't be entered into the drawing.
The ongoing dispute between the town and Berkshire Concrete inspired the initiatives. Stories on the ongoing situation here.
For more than a year, residents living near the unauthorized dig site have come forward in large numbers, reporting health concerns they believe are related to sand and dust migrating from the site.
"It's not the sole thing that we're looking at, but it is definitely something that we're going to be looking at – seeing if there are increased rates of certain illnesses in those areas," Bryan said.
"We won't be releasing any maps with that data or anything to that effect. The only thing we can release at specific request is de-identified data.
"So, that would be the data without like addresses or any personally identifying information. But it'll primarily be used internally for our own decision-making purposes."
Tags: board of health, survey,
