In your mailbox this week there should be a postcard from the town of Marblehead c/o UMass Boston inviting you to complete a private, completely confidential survey about your health and wellness. The Board of Health will use the results of that survey to set priorities and develop community-wide programs in the future. It may take a few minutes of your time to complete today, but the results from it will be invaluable to the board as it makes strategic decisions for years to come. We strongly and respectfully recommend that you complete the survey as soon as possible. (You can take the survey HERE.)
Wellness describes a state of optimal well-being — not merely the absence of disease. The survey is designed to measure the eight dimensions of wellness: physical, social, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, environmental, occupational and financial. The results should provide an interesting and holistic perspective of our community.
This wellness assessment is the initial component of a new Board of Health initiative known as CAHM (Creating a Healthier Marblehead) which has the goal of promoting better health in our town. Historically, the Board of Health has been primarily involved with protecting and controlling threats to your health. This new initiative represents a recognition that public health locally, nationally and globally is changing. The definition of the new public health most consistent with our goals is: Public health Is what we do together as a society to create conditions in which everyone can be healthy. The new public health intends to be more locally focused. This survey will provide local data for making local decisions. It is designed to solicit recommendations about where the Board of Health and other town boards, committees, organizations, ministries and businesses should spend their energies and time in the future.
We need to know what current services work, and which don’t. And what services might be added.
In the next town election, you will be voting for two additional members for the Board of Health that will allow the board to expand to five members. The larger board will be more efficient and more effective which will allow it to consider more health promoting activities and programs than had been possible previously.
There are no tax dollars involved in collecting this information. The CAHM town-wide health assessment is being generously supported by the following prominent organizations: The Rotary Club of Marblehead, the Marblehead Female Humane Society, the Mariner and the Rotary Club of Marblehead Harbor.
When CAHM proposes new services or programs, the board will need to defend them and that will require a solid appreciation of the health status baseline from which we are starting. The CAHM townwide health assessment will provide that baseline. The greater the response to the survey, the stronger the conclusions and recommendations will be.
Once the assessment results are available, supervised focus groups will be established to explore topics identified by the survey responses as deserving examination in greater depth.
The final report based on the wellness assessment and the focus groups will be available in the Spring of 2026. A public forum will be scheduled shortly after the report is published to discuss results, evaluate conclusions, and make recommendations.
The BoH has contracted with a team from UMass Boston that has great experience with doing health assessments in Massachusetts municipalities. Salem and Swampscott are just two of the 80 municipalities that this team has successfully supported.
Caitlin Coyle, Ph.D, of UMass Boston addressed the Select Board last week and outlined the security protocols that are in place to secure the confidentiality of the survey. One of the reasons we chose to partner with UMass Boston is its experience in maintaining the integrity of the survey process. All of the survey procedures have been reviewed and approved by their Institutional Review Board. All individual answers remain completely anonymous. There should be no identifying markers in either the hard copy or the digital version. Data is collected on a password-protected platform and is stored on a password protected folder on a server at their campus. Only researchers from UMass Boston will have access to the raw data which will not be shared with the town. No one from the Board of Health will have access to it. Only aggregated data results will be shared and made public.
The Board of Health sees CAHM as an effective way to learn what the town residents see as important. We are eager to hear from the people that elected us. We value your thoughts and opinions. And hopefully, you will be comfortable being accurate, frank and straightforward in your responses. The Bord of Health sees CAHM as an effective way to learn what the town residents see as important.
Our UMass Boston colleagues tell us that different town survey initiatives have produced markedly different recommendations such as housing and sidewalk infrastructure, enhanced cross generational contact, substance use and mental health protocols. Marblehead is an exceptional place. It will be interesting to see what unique recommendations it comes up with to help us support the well-being of our residents.
*The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author alone. They do not necessary reflect the opinion of the Board of Health which he chairs.
