WALLINGFORD, CT — Mental health issues topped the list of community concerns in Wallingford, according to a recently released community health needs assessment.

About 20 percent of adults in Wallingford have been diagnosed with depression at some point in their life, and 13 percent describe their current overall mental health as poor, according to the report.

Residents and officials who provided input for the report made clear that “basic needs like affordable housing and food access were also barriers to healthy living in the area,” according to a news release.

Eleven percent of Wallingford adults struggled to pay for food in the past year, and 31 percent are just getting by financially, according to the DataHaven Community Wellbeing Survey.

The report integrates data collected from local, state, and national sources alongside public input collected from interviews with the public, focus groups, and an online survey that ran from August until November 2023.

In all, 432 participants from Wallingford provided input on what health challenges faced their communities.

“Community health needs assessments such as this one are used to determine the status of physical, mental, and environmental health in a community, and are completed every few years,” the news release states.

The Wallingford Health Department previously completed a health improvement plan in 2021.

The report, compiled by DataHaven in partnership with the Wallingford Health Department, compiles more than 100 health-related indicators ranging from weather-related and the environmental health, health care cost and access, birth outcomes, substance use, COVID–19, and several causes of mortality. It can be accessed on the city of Wallingford’s website here. (For the survey response supplement, click here.)

“Uncovering health disparities allows for the promotion of health equity by addressing root causes and ensuring equal access to healthcare resources for all community members,” said Vanessa Bautista, Director of Health at Wallingford Health Department. “Overall, a community health assessment serves as a comprehensive tool to understand, address, and enhance the health and well-being of Wallingford. The completed CHA will guide the Wallingford Health Department in formulating a health improvement plan to share with the community.”

Read more from the news release below:

A Community Health Assessment (CHA) is crucial for Wallingford as it helps identify the specific health needs within the community, enabling more effective resource allocation. By developing targeted interventions and programs based on assessment findings, a CHA establishes a baseline for measuring the progress of health initiatives over time. Community engagement is facilitated, ensuring that health policies are informed by actual needs. Furthermore, a CHA identifies risk factors and determinants, aiding in the creation of preventive strategies.

A few additional findings from the report include:

• Similar to statewide averages, 30 percent of adults in Wallingford have high blood pressure, 5 percent have heart disease, and 8 percent have diabetes.
• More adults in Wallingford have had a stroke (8 percent) than statewide (5 percent). After one stroke, an individual is more likely to suffer another. Risk for mortality also rises after one stroke.
• The rate of fatal overdoses in Wallingford is lower than the state average, but opioids are present in 95 percent of overdoses among Wallingford residents, and fentanyl in 80 percent.
• Sexually transmitted infections are on the rise in New Haven County and nationally, due in part to low rates of screening. Nationally, rates of congenital syphilis increased more than 30 percent from 2020 to 2021. Congenital syphilis is a major concern due to under-screening of pregnant people.
• Suicide rates are higher in Wallingford (9.9 per 100,000 residents) than statewide (7.7 per 100,000).
• Only about 40 percent of women ages 65 and over, in Wallingford and statewide, are up-to-date on core preventive services. A national survey found that reasons for this include high out-of-pocket costs and difficulty getting an appointment.
• A recent statewide survey of K–12 students found that 36 percent felt hopeless nearly every day for at least two weeks in the past year. Those rates were twice as high for girls (48 percent) than for boys (24 percent).

In addition to providing data related to health and health outcomes in Wallingford, and by race/ethnicity within Wallingford where available, the report includes detailed summaries of the input provided by residents, with key input provided by school superintendents, emergency services, senior services, and other personnel with close ties to population health. A directory of resources is also included.

“Wallingford’s residents and community leaders made it very clear that they are concerned about mental health in their community, partly as the result of the pandemic,” said Kelly Davila, Senior Research Associate at DataHaven and lead author of the report. “This report and other efforts to capture in more detail the potential drivers of those mental health challenges can be used to implement strategies that can improve the quality of life for all Wallingford residents.”