MARINETTE — A good diet and daily exercise will keep someone healthy, but if they can’t rely on a vehicle to get to the doctor or a childcare provider so they can keep a job, working out and getting their fruits and veggies is last on their list of priorities.
Marinette County has a stark need for affordable housing, reliable transportation and safe childcare, according to the first collaborative Community Health Assessment conducted by Marinette County Public Health with Provident Health Foundation and Aurora Medical Center - Bay Area.
If the county lacks the infrastructure to be healthy, it may not be people’s fault that they’re unhealthy.
Molly Bonjean, public health officer for Marinette County Health & Human Services, said looking into the social reasons why someone may be unhealthy — like not having a safe home or not having transportation — is a more current way of looking at the health of the community. Even Brown County’s assessment focused on the same things, and the state’s health plan is moving in that direction, too, she said.
“Traditionally, we thought more about how healthy an individual person is: How good is your diet? How much do you exercise? Things like that. We have not really looked at health in our community as closely through the social factors as we did this time. It’s getting more toward the root cause of overall health,” Bonjean said.
The survey had 1,000 respondents, with 45 individual interviews. The county should release its recommendations from the assessment by the end of the month, she said.
“The things that popped up as the largest determinants of health were not on anyone’s radar three years ago,” said Madison Darling, grant and collaborations officer for Provident Health Foundation of Marinette/Menominee. “The lack of housing, the lack of transportation and the lack of childcare are keeping a lot of people from accessing the necessities they need to be healthy.”
She said that they’re a considerable barrier to the community growing economically, which is another social determinant of health.
“If you have an economically strong community, you’re going to have a healthier community,” Darling said.
The Community Health Assessment identified two main improvement categories, with two to three critical findings underneath each factor.
SOCIAL FACTORSThe assessment pointed out housing and transportation as the two key findings in the health assessment for social factors. Housing in the area, especially apartments, can be scarce.
“There isn’t housing for that middle-income bracket, which is an important component to have in the community,” Darling said. “There just isn’t enough available, so it isn’t affordable.”
Respondents in the community said public transportation, in the form of buses, bikes, Uber, Lyft, or taxis, is not accessible. Four percent said they felt it was.
“4% said yes, 4%,” Darling said.
“It tells us there’s a problem,” Bonjean said.
HEALTH CONDITIONS
Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse (AODA), mental health and nutrition and physical activity were the three key findings in the health assessment for health conditions. They don’t surprise anyone, Darling said.
“They’ve been that way for Marinette County at least since 2006,” Bonjean said, noting the year that the county finished the first-ever health assessment.
A focus on opioids has taken hold, but secondary data showed more hospitalizations for alcohol-related incidents than opioid-related incidents, Darling said.
“That was shocking to me,” she said. “What we kept hearing from key stakeholders was that alcohol abuse is normalized in our community. A couple of people said, ‘I think there are more resources for opioid addictions or drug addictions than alcohol addictions,’ which was a good point.”
Alcohol is normalized in the state, said Darling, who is originally from Alabama.
“In Alabama, you can’t buy alcohol on a Sunday,” Darling said, mentioning that it was startling to see hard liquor in the grocery store, gas stations and convenience stores.
The second key finding in health conditions was mental health.
“I feel like we heard conflicting information,” Darling said, noting that providers said they had more openings.
Still, other people’s perceptions were the opposite of that. Some respondents said there were too few providers. Darling noted that might stem from having resources for some mental health conditions but not for others.
Bonjean said dental access isn’t in the top three categories, but it could move up if the severe lack of dental access isn’t resolved in the community. She said she was pleased to see nutrition and physical activity as the next on the list — a local physician, who was a key informant in the interview process, said he believes the No. 1 health issue is obesity.
“Usually, it’s the drugs and mental health that get the limelight, and for this doctor to say we need to be looking at nutrition and physical activity, it really struck me,” Bonjean said.
FUTURE
Talking about the findings is essential. The county often has plentiful resources to make changes in the community. However, it may need help getting the word out.
“I think there’s a perception that there isn’t a way to be active, but there are,” Darling said. “There are so many opportunities. I think it’s just that education piece.”
Changes in awareness could create the shift needed to improve community health.
“This is a beautiful community,” Darling said. “We are overwhelmed with how much nature we have around us. Marinette and Menominee are beautiful counties.”
The community is invited to join the ongoing discussions with the work groups or “community health partnerships” assigned to some of the key findings in the Community Health Assessment, Bonjean said. Call the main office of Health & Human Services at (715) 732-7700 to join a future discussion with local leaders.
“It’s not just public health coming up with our ideas and how we could potentially address nutrition and physical activity,” Bonjean said, mentioning that the work groups are a mix of people from all community sectors.
Throwing a hat in the ring can be the difference be the change needed to move things forward.
Marinette County Public Health recently received a $10,000 check from the M&M Area Community Foundation for its newest Tri-City Event Series program, which will debut with a new website in a few weeks. The series will be a collaborative effort that includes one community-based physical activity per month for the next year — an idea that came out of the Community Health Assessment.
“Community health is not that far away,” Darling said. “It takes people being invested and involved.”
Those who want to get active can find the physical activity guide on the Marinette County website: https://bit.ly/PhysicalActivityGuide.
For resources on mental health, view the website resource provided by Marinette County: https://bit.ly/MarinetteMentalHealth.
