Parkland previews 2025 community health needs assessment; cites mental health, access gaps for Dallas seniors

Parkland Health gave the Dallas Senior Affairs Commission a preview of its 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment on issues affecting older adults, saying the report — required every three years under the Affordable Care Act — will be finalized after board review and production later this year.

"We are required to define the community we serve, which in Parkland's case, it's very simple as we only serve Dallas County," said Teresita Oates, a Parkland Health official who presented the draft findings and methods. Oates described a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology that includes federal and state public‑health data sets, Parkland clinical registries and more than two dozen focus groups.

Why it matters: Parkland told commissioners the preliminary analysis shows concentrated disparities — higher uninsured rates, fewer primary care providers and higher area deprivation — in parts of southeast Dallas and the south side of I‑30. Those geographic disparities translate to wide differences in life expectancy: one ZIP code shown in Parkland's analysis had a life expectancy near 90…