The 2020 Forces of Change survey captures a mid-pandemic picture of the public health response to COVID-19.

The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) has surveyed local health departments (LHDs) since 2008 to assess changes in LHD capacity driven by public health trends. The results are then released in the Forces of Change report, the latest iteration of which has just been posted on the NACCHO website. The new survey was conducted between October 2020 and March 2021, and was designed to gather a picture mid-pandemic of LHD response to COVID-19, including financial and staffing capacity, harrassment of public health officials for efforts to mitigate spread of the virus, how equity was addressed during the pandemic, and to what degree LHDs were able to plan for the emergency and later recovery. 

According to Dr. Tim McCall, NACCHO’s Director of Research, the Forces of Change report provides policy makers an opportunity to see where public health resources are most needed. Local health departments will find the report useful in gaining perspective of how their LHD is benchmarked against others in similar jurisdictions.