In an effort to better understand the health priorities of its residents, Montgomery County is in the process of conducting its first-ever Community Health Assessment, writes Emily Neil for WHYY.

The anonymous survey takes around 15 minutes to complete and is available to those living in the county who are 18 and older. The county plans to use the information gathered from the survey to create a Community Health Improvement Plan this fall.

According to Christina Miller, administrator of the Office of Public Health, for effective public health work, this type of feedback is essential.

“That was really, I think, for us the impetus for going about this process, to have community voices, and community perspectives, resident voices, resident perspectives, reflected in the data that we see and that we use to plan our work,” she said.

The county has partnered with several organizations to share the assessment. All of the materials have been translated into several of the most spoken languages in Montgomery County, including Arabic, Hindi, Italian, and Spanish.

The survey can be found online. Residents are invited to respond through the middle of May.

Results from the assessment will be published online sometime during the summer.

Read more about the Montgomery County public health survey in WHYY.

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