Where to go from here? An assessment of the county’s challenges is one good starting point. It begins with the kind of discussion among professionals such as took place May 21. This crowd proved tough graders. The highest mark any of the groups awarded for how Ulster County is doing was a C.
After Commissioner Smith’s presentation on community health rankings at the SUNY Ulster meeting, nearly 100 attendees were assigned to focus groups, each specializing in a particular topic: cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and mental health/substance abuse. The hour-long sessions were designed to identify problems with accessibility in each area as well as strengths and culminated in a brief summary, including a grade assigned by the group for the specialty, presented when the meeting attendees had re-convened. Some of the presenters were SUNY New Paltz students working with Eve Waltermaurer at the New Paltz-based Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach (CRREO).
The heart disease focus group awarded the county a C. Not enough residents were utilizing the rail trails or farm markets, the group concluded. Raised awareness about these health assets was needed. Also, more people who are at high risk of diabetes need to be engaged to reduce the incidences of the disease.
The diabetes group gave the county a D. Lack of coordination and networking among providers and lack of public awareness about prevention were the leading challenges. More affordable access to resources is needed.
The cancer group came up with a C- grade. It felt that greater access to services and education about prevention was needed. Coordinating with the state and environmental advocates to reduce the public’s exposure to environmental toxins would help.
The two mental-health focus groups, which gave a C and no grade, favored more interchange and cross-training of mental-health and substance-abuse service providers, given the connection between the two maladies. More services were needed for the uninsured, they said. So was improved coordination with the county’s numerous grass-roots organizations, including holistic health centers and healing groups. A campaign in which people who’ve overcome their addiction or managed their mental-health problems effectively would speak about their journey was suggested. Prevention efforts could benefit from employing kids to work with other kids.
These summations were just the tip of the iceberg. In the diabetes focus group, for instance, there were numerous observations and suggestions from professionals “on the ground.” A sampling: the difficulties some seniors have traveling to the outpatient treatment center; the importance of financial incentives from the insurance companies for changing behavior to reduce risk; the need to reach out to populations in the county at risk; the prevalence of the disease not only among the poor but also the middle class; the growing cultural acceptance of obesity; and the role of physical inactivity in contributing to the onset of the disease.
