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Public Health

Posted on: July 26, 2022

MCDPH Launches Interactive Dashboard Highlighting COVID-19 Stories from County Residents

group of people wearing face masks

  • The Voices of Maricopa County Dashboard illustrates the impact of the pandemic on community health by combining population data with the lived experiences of Maricopa County residents 
  • Data comes from 14,380 multiple-choice survey responses, including over 4,500 written-in comments collected from the 2021 MCDPH COVID-19 Impact Survey
  • Residents can use dashboard to submit their own stories of how COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their lives
  • Dashboard provides insight to organizations and policy makers on top health and social needs of the community 

PHOENIX (July 26, 2022)—Stories move us, whether our individual experiences are shared or diverse. Data helps us better understand the broader picture of our realities. Together, stories and data give us pathways to connect as a community and work toward more hopeful futures. That’s why Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) has curated stories that present the human side of COVID-19 data on the Voices of Maricopa County dashboard that launches today. 

In 2021, MCDPH surveyed Maricopa County residents to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the health and wellbeing of Maricopa County communities. This community health needs assessment (CHNA) sought resident input into how MCDPH and its partners could support COVID-19 recovery and guide future community health improvement planning. With the help of local partners, MCDPH collected 14,380 multiple-choice survey responses, including over 4,500 written-in comments. These written responses revealed the priorities of community members from their own perspective, in addition to questions written by MCDPH. 

“We couldn’t have collected this many responses without our partners, and we hope that pulling together all this data in one place helps our partners strengthen their work,” said Lilliana Cardenas, manager over the CHNA process at MCDPH. “This dashboard can also help residents understand their friends, family and neighbors better, and even feel less alone in what they’ve gone through over the last few years.” 

MCDPH collaborated with mySidewalk, a storytelling data platform developer, to build the interactive Voices of Maricopa County dashboard. The Voices of Maricopa County dashboard elevates community voices and demonstrates prominent health needs through immersive quotes supported by population-level data. 

The dashboard is organized through themes that emerged from resident input, including:

  • Caregiving (childcare, disability)
  • Mental health
  • Access to medical care
  • Cancer
  • Chronic disease prevention
  • Social determinants of health (like education, employment, and more)
  • Information & media
  • COVID-19 prevention measures

Visitors to the dashboard have the opportunity to provide their own feedback. “We know that not everyone got a chance to take the survey, so continuing to collect feedback helps us gather more perspectives and see how those change over time,” added Cardenas.

As that data gets included in the dashboard, it will provide an evolving reflection of community member priorities and experiences.

https://dashboards.mysidewalk.com/voices

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