Burke County presents 2025 Community Health Assessment highlighting housing, substance use and mental‑health priorities

Miranda Smith, Burke County public health educator, briefed commissioners Nov. 17 on the completed 2025 Community Health Assessment (CHA), a three‑year cycle report that uses primary survey data and secondary sources to set local health priorities.

Smith said the county collected primary data from April–June 2024, with 492 resident survey responses (one of the larger samples among Western North Carolina counties). The CHA identified three top priorities: affordable housing and homelessness (2025 point‑in‑time count: 258 individuals; 73 students lacked stable housing; 33.7% of survey respondents said they worry about paying rent or mortgage), substance‑use disorder (55.2% reported personal negative impacts; adult drinking rates up to 46.2%) and mental health (average 5.5 poor mental‑health days reported, above state and national averages reported in the presentation).

Smith described planned next steps: a 2026 Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) that will inventory existing programs, identify gaps and prioritize interventions; and a 2027 State of County Health report to update the CHIP with progress metrics and environmental/contextual changes. Smith encouraged stakeholders to review the full CHA when published for grant applications and program planning.

Commissioners accepted the report as presented. Smith noted targeted outreach used focus groups to capture underrepresented perspectives (cultural diversity, homelessness, faith‑based groups). No legislative action was requested at the meeting.