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Building a healthier Quad Cities.

So what's the diagnosis and office visit with those trying to improve our health in the cities Since 2002, the Quad City Health Initiative has bee taking the pulse of the public.

The community health assessment really has become a checkup that's done every three years to see how we're doing.

It looks at disease rates, mental health, poverty and living conditions.

Well the latest assessment is now out more than 200 pages of information based on the findings of people surveyed in Scott, Rock Island and Muscatine counties.

And there are some eye opening numbers that will need our attention as a community.

We talked with the executive director of the quad City Health Initiative, Nicole Kirchner, and the deputy director of th Scott County Health Department, Brooke Barnes.

Let's start with you, Nicole.

Why is the community health needs assessment really even important?

Yeah, well, that's a great question.

So, you know, through the Quad City Health Initiative, we want to create a healthy community.

We want individuals to be healthy.

We want the to have great quality of life.

And so what the health assessment does is it helps us to understand where we are today and where there are opportunities for us to grow.

It really gives us a foundation of information to think about how we can achieve that overall mission.

So we actually have thre major components to the study, because we really want to make sure that we're getting that well-rounded pictur of what's happening in the area.

So you're right.

The first piece is a survey o adults in the Quad Cities area.

And we actually talked to 1150 of those through that survey in order to get their understanding of their own health, their health behaviors, what they perceiv to be issues in our community.

And then we also include a bunch of secondary data in this report so that we'r able to look at some trend data, some information at the state level and the national level that can help to give us some context for our data locally.

And then the final piece, which is really critical, is hearing directly from members of our community through local focus groups.

So we had a whole qualitative data collection process where we were able to ask people to talk to us and have conversations through these focus groups about health in the Quad Cities.

Now, Brooke, you saw the numbers and you saw the statistics.

You were talking about 280 some pages.

And I'm sure you've delved into each and every one of those pages.

Tell me was there anything that was eye opening to you, or is it kind of like, yeah, this is what I thought.

I think a little of everything.

I think we knew maybe some of the main components that were going to be a focus of, you know, some of the questions, the results that weren't going to have changed a ton.

Three years is not a long time, but it helps us to keep Palsson.

What's happening?

I think we found, you know, some benefits of more people with health insurance.

We know there's federal policies that, you know, handle that.

We know access to car is a huge component of health.

Not the only but one big piece there.

We did find informatio on the things like falls being a leading cause of accidental death in our community, and very much so different from other communities.

So, you know, that gives us some information to look into, to really figure out, you know, what what exists here, what programs do we have?

What processes do we have in place to address those types of things?

So every page you can go to has a little bit different.

And we do try to break it down by various populations within our community.

We know one number for any of our countie doesn't tell us the whole story.

If we say Scott County is at this level for this, we really need to understand within our communities what that means for various groups.

And on a more generalized statement, what the community told you the top five priorities were was, mental health number one, by a long shot, then health care access, nutrition, and then the worry about diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

And number six, housing.

You don't think of housing as a health care.

But Brooke, it is.

Yeah, absolutely.

You know, we talk in publi health and health care in all of our really all the work that everybody does in the community abou social determinants of health.

And those are those factors that exist within communities, within systems that make individuals more or less likely to be healthy.

And so access to healthy, affordable, safe housing is always a piece that plays into our ability to get what we need to stay healthy, be active.

If you're struggling to pay rent, it's really hard to go to some of those other types of things.

Go out for a walk, eat health foods, go to the grocery store when access to that is a lo more challenging, and finding.

Making sure you have a roof and a warm place to stay is you know, your biggest priority.

And you've been around since the beginning with a health initiative, sinc the beginning of these surveys.

And and one of the things that that always seems to play up is, is mental health issues.

Particularly early, is it because particularly after the pandemic?

Well, I think you're right.

We have seen mental health as an issue in these community surveys before.

I remember talking about it, you know, more than a decade ago.

So I think that we have had a very good understanding of the importance of mental health to our overall physical health.

I think it's also fair to say that the last several years didn't help our mental health in many ways.

Right.

But I think one of the goo signs, maybe about the numbers that we're seeing now is that it could indicate that people are more comfortable talking about this topic, more comfortable expressing needs related to their mental health, more comfortable seeking services when they're in need of services.

And certainly when we first started talking about this issue many, many years ago, we were concerned about the fact that there can be stigma associated with mental health and we wanted to try to reduce that and make it a topic that people felt more comfortable discussing.

And so it's difficult to kno when you're looking at snapshots of dat like our assessment represents.

And certainly we are and continue to be concerned about the trends that we see and that data related to mental health.

But we're also glad that people are talking about it.

One, Nicole we can point out the problems.

The question is what are the solutions and do we have enough mental health?

Advocates and therapists to help the population?

Or is it that people just aren't necessarily seeking professional help?

I think we have a little of everything.

I think, there has been a very, coordinated effort amongst providers, partners in our community to find various ways to address mental health.

It doesn't necessarily just have to be in, an office of a clinician who's doing that, but there's resources within the schools, within workplaces, those types of things to be looking at some of those initial supports that an individual can access, beyon just a prescriber for medication or something like that.

So I think that has been a large piece of what the community has been trying t do is how do we build a system that looks and, and provides resources to individuals?

I think, you know, every provider would say, hey, if I could get, you know, more individuals here who are providing services, I would do it.

That isn't always something that's feasible immediately.

And so I think we've been very creative in trying to work together as a group.

There's a coalition, the Quad Cities Behavioral Health Coalition, one of the community groups working on this that's really been trying to be innovative.

And what are ways that, you know, we can meet people where they are and make it an open door in multiple spots instead of just one.

Well, and, Nikolaj, you know, when you're looking at health care, income is such a barrier for so many different people and you're talking about health care.

We said affordable housing, which is a concern.

Mental health would be a concern, and also nutrition and food security.

That's really is a play in society.

And the Quad Cities is no different.

Yeah, I agree with you.

You know, income is one of those social determinants of health that Brook was mentioning before.

And it certainly does play a role in individuals healthy choices.

And so it definitely is a consideration as we're thinking about trying to meet the needs of our community.

That's one of the reason why when we do this assessment, we really do try to involve community members to help, to guide our work.

And most importantly, once we have the data, we want to share it with all of our partners so that everyone can consider what roles they can play.

You know, we we really believe through the Quad City health initiatives work, that all organizations in the community have a role to play in increasing our health.

And so, as Brook was mentioning, you know, schools, employers, churches, all organizations can be thinking about how these health issues apply to the individuals.

But they work most closely with and hopefully help us to really sort of rally around and make an impact.

Because if you look at the statistics from this report, a highe poverty rate in the Quad Cities than the Illinois average, the Iowa average in the national average, which is very disconcerting, 13.2% among adults or the entire population, children 18.7%.

That's eye opening.

Brook.

Yeah, I think that just lets us know some of the challenges that exist within our community to address some of these needs and how we need to have a diverse group of partners looking at this.

This is not just something that can be solved by public health departments.

You know, health care providers.

It's really all of us.

And we know that there's great resources in the community.

And so we have to figure out how to deploy them well, so that I, as an individual and this agency know how to support individuals with resources, other places, unintentional drug related deaths are falling.

And let me say that again, unintentional drug related deaths are falling.

The national average is climbing quickly.

Can we figure out why?

I mean, that's really good news.

Of course.

Good news?

Yeah.

Why?

I'm not sure that we kno the why, but I agree with you.

It is good news because other communities across the U certainly are facing that issue.

I would say, though, that one of the things that was interesting in looking at that section of the data was that it di look like alcohol related deaths actually were higher here in the Quad Cities area.

So it might suggest that substance abuse is still an issue in our community.

It just might be that folks are using different substances than are used in some other communities in the US.

So that's why when we take a look at this data, we're really trying to sort of understand it as a whole picture, right?

You know, really sort of think about what are all the healt behaviors that we can encourage and that we want to try to promote in our communities so that peopl can make really great choices, and we can really think about surrounding people with that culture of health.

And it really dovetails into the federal settlement, the opioid settlement, and Scott County getting $7 million for programs.

Is it over a decade or a half decade, about 15 years or 15 years.

So add the two together, I got it.

How is that money going to be used and tell me about the ongoing fentanyl and opioid crisis, which which I mean, it used to be meth was that was the big drug.

And then it was the opioids now.

Yeah.

So, as a result of these settlement dollars that are coming to local governments as well as state governments, Scott County and receivin those dollars, pulled together a steering committee of partners across the spectrum.

So, you know, opioid or substance abuse providers, law enforcement schools, you name it.

We really tried to bring everyone from across that spectrum together, to really start talking about what this looks like in our community and what we can do.

We don't often have problems that pop up, that we have these dollars sitting there to impact.

I think we'd love that with our community health assessment work that we have.

So it's quite unique.

There are certain items that you can use these dollars on.

And so that was a guiding force to that.

And so we had multiple meetings working through kind of a plan for discussions within our community under better understanding what's happening, as you're saying, the unintentional deaths that were happening, things such as Narcan, how is that deployed in our community?

How's that being used by various groups?

So those are all discussions that had taken place.

And through a prioritization process with all of those partners, the top two strategies that were identified, one was having a system of war handoffs for individuals who are experiencing some sort of opioid use or crisis, kind of across the spectrum.

And that would be an individua who knows all of the resources, all of the partners can really be ther to help make those connections.

So if an individual has an overdose and is, you know, being, released from the ER, that er would be able to call this individual and help figure ou what could be the next steps for to give them options and resources and so Scott County Community Services, which is one of the agencies within Scott County, has hired an opioid coordinato who will be looking at the care and making all of those connections.

This is a new position within the county that seemed based on the partners, interest.

It made sense to be within that agency that already provides a lot of general assistance for individuals in need.

And so that individual will be able to do linkages across everything.

I think she started this week.

So, very new.

Give her some time.

What's there.

All right.

And then the second piece was really looking at prevention and working with the schools.

And so we've had lots of conversations.

We have another one coming up in about two weeks with, school districts in Scott County talking to them about what does what are the needs of schools and addressing some of these things.

And so what they have told us is they have a lot of primary prevention, which would be prevention that every student in the school district receives.

But some of the struggles they have is what what to do with that next level.

Some students who've shown risky behaviors, who are needing some more o that intensive, type of support.

And so the dollars could potentially be used to bring in a various type of training or a module that would support the schools.

And so we're really letting them a lead, that is, we're not experts and in what prevention and some of that looks like, but we're bringing them together and allowing them to look at what some opportunities could be, what would help.

And really our focus is o building a sustainable system.

What are the things that we can do to strengthen and support some of these things?

So that way we're again making a change across that policy and systems change.

And so we're really hopeful to see, what again, the influx of dollars int some of these things can do that we might not have been able to have a focus on otherwise.

The other part of this report, Nicole, I'll go to you have regarding, diseases that we're very familiar with, with, with cancer, with, diabetes, with, high blood pressure, and cholesterol, diabetes, significant increase from 2002.

The baseline it is the highest recorded rate of diabete in a decade in the Quad Cities, and it's the highest in Muscatine County as well.

This is healthy eating exercise.

What's going wrong?

Yeah, I think, you know, with many of these chronic diseases, when you think about diabetes or cardiovascular disease, really our whole message is about prevention, right?

And it has to be it has to be.

And for that, I think it does go back to some of those really foundational behaviors around trying to make healthy choices regarding what we eat, physical activity, making sure people are getting regular checkups, that they understand their health status, that they know what their numbers are, you know, whether or not they've been, recently had a glucose test or whether they've had their high blood pressure, high cholesterol checked.

And so we we really want to encourag people to continue to seek out that information for themselves and then think about how they can remain as healthy as possible.

It's a societal issue, though.

I mean, I'm not just picking on people in the Quad Cities, but I mean, there was a question about, do you do you know about the, trails that are in the Quad Cities?

And a lot of people said, yes.

Do you use them?

A lot of people say, no.

I mean, it's kind of an acknowledgment that, yes, diabetes exists.

Yes, I may be diabetic.

No, I don't want to do anything about it.

Yeah.

I think, you know behavior change is hard, right?

I mean, I know I wrestle with those things myself.

I'm sure that, you know, man other folks feel that way, too.

And I think one of the things that we try to cultivate in our conversations about this is that it does need to be, creating a culture in our community that's encouraging of our individual behaviors and thinking about the cultures within our schools, within our workplaces, how we can kind of set each other up for success in trying to make healthy behaviors is certainly part of that conversation, because it isn't just al about what we as individuals do.

We're making these decisions in the context of many other things that happen during the course of our day.

And if we can think about how to shift policie within organizations or policies within the community that can encourage behaviors, then maybe it makes it just little bit easier for all of us.

The prevalence of high cholesterol is rising.

Brook.

The prevalence of high blood pressure 31% in 2015, 42% according to this survey.

Today.

It, it seems like whatever we're doing isn't working.

Yeah, yeah, I think as I think it's really denotes everything Nicole just said.

And I think for us it's looking at what are the structures an systems and things that we can, look at asking more questions and figuring out more about to make things that are the healthy choice, the easy choice.

And so I think for us, that's trying to dig down a little bit deeper beyond, you know, what did you do yesterday for your health, but kind of those bigger pieces to unwrap some of that.

We know the role stress plays and a lot of heart health, a lot of those types of things I think are challenging, which is also why we try to dig down into those numbers a little bit more.

Looking at groups, we know that those social determinants of health really impac all of these things negatively.

And so we know that if you're lower income, if you know, single income family or, all of those things, it makes all of these health outcomes worse.

And so those are things that we as a communit need to look at and try to say, okay, we might need to wrap some additional support or resources in certain areas and not necessarily across the board.

Well, cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, some of that is genetic of course, but some of that is our choices of healthy living.

Cancer rates are also increasing.

And that's lung cancer by far the leading killer is lung cancer.

The rate is higher in the Quad Cities than the national average.

And when you talk about cancer screenings, that has fallen.

So I mean, the cancer rates are increasin and our screenings are falling.

That's not sustainable.

That that just doesn't work.

Yeah.

You know I guess I'd say kind of two things there.

When you think about lung cancer in particular, one of the big contributors to lung cancer oftentimes is tobacco use.

So you know thinking about reducing tobacco use, eliminating tobacco use.

And now in the last several years, as well, nicotine use also affecting individuals if they're choosing to vape instead of smoke, I was going to say there's a lot of vaping, there's a lot of vaping going on, you know, so those are health behaviors that we do have some influence over that can make an impact and, you know, possibly prevent the the developmen of some of those other diseases.

But you're right.

I think you know, back to sort of that whole idea of understanding our health and trying to promote preventive care, having regular screenings, you know, talking with your doctor about what screenings are appropriate and making sure that you're following up on those, you know, detection, early identification of issues is is so much better tha finding out later down the line.

So I think what these number point to is just our continued emphasis needs to be on encouraging people to seek that preventive care and make sure that they're taking good care of their health.

Well and let's talk about one other.

And I thought this was an interesting line.

And I'll go with, Brooke, because you're seeing this firsthand.

And the question was, would you want all recommende vaccination for your children?

And in 2015 94% of the respondents said yes.

Today it was 85%.

To be perfectly honest, I thought that was high because of what we've gone through with the pandemic, you have been in the front line of convincing people that vaccines are safe, that they are needed.

It's been proven time and time again.

And you do know and with a new administration, there's going to be bigger questions about vaccines than ever before.

Are you worried about that statistic?

I mean, we continuously monitor what the vaccine levels are based on audits we do in the schools.

Other kind of records and things we have we do know it' extremely important for things such as herd immunity for our vaccine level to be at a certain percentage.

That means that less likel for these illnesses to be able to come into our community and really spread.

So that's always a concern for us.

We also know that it's really challenging to make lots of these health care decisions, especially for your children.

And so we've really been promoting to ask questions, you know, if there's trust issues in where you're getting information, make sure you're going to your provider or another trusted resource.

And really being there.

I don't think we the days of just saying do it because we've told you to, you know, because it's the right thing to do or the healthy thing to do that doesn't cut it.

And so I think we are very realistic that there are lots of questions out there, and we are happy to answer those.

We are our partners, our and so that's really the primary thing.

And so we are looking for ways to help share information on how vaccines work.

So it's our job to make sure that we're helping describe what's taking place.

We're describin why these things are important.

And agai it just goes back to the fewer that we have that have that protection, it puts the entire community at risk, which is our concern when we see things pop up in the schools.

And you have kids who can't b vaccinated for medical reasons, and so they truly d rely on kind of that community, level of vaccination to hel support them and keep them safe.

Let's talk about one of the positives that I found from the report.

And once again, there are positives.

There are there you also, because you not only did, the number crunching, you also had like you were saying, you talked to, focus groups and you were able to talk to people a little bit more and get more information behind the numbers, which sometimes is incredibly valuable.

And one of the positives that people consider the Quad Cities as diverse, safe and a happy place to live.

It was page 19 of the report.

So tell me what that tells you.

Yeah.

You know, I think that sometimes when we do have these reports and they're so full of numbers that suggest to us that we have room to grow, that it's easy to skip over the fact that we are a great place to live, that the Quad Cities is a wonderful community.

It's a very collaborative community, and so I think a lot of what we heard in the focus groups from people was just affirming that people care about this community, they care about each other, and there are many wonderful things.

And what we want to just do is continue to build on that.

Right, you know, take thi information as a way to continue to encourage people to connect with available resources.

We have a number of existing coalitions in the community that address some of the topic that we've been talking about.

You know, for example, when we were talking about, nicotine tobacco use, we have a great very long standing in our community coalition called Tobacco Free QC.

And they have wonderful information to provid to individuals and organizations to help individuals and organizations in Brook.

I mean, you're one of the partners here.

You're on the front lines here.

We get this big report, like I said, 280 pages.

And you're worried it's going to be a binder that collects dust way up on one of the top shelves.

Is it important to to take action from this?

Absolutely.

And that was as we had a stakeholder group that came together, reall community partners and leaders, talking this through with us, trying to determine what we're finding, looking at the information and making some decisions.

Part of that was, you know, identifyin what each of us can find a role in doing some of this work.

And so, I know we'll all take it and do different things, but that's part of the intent of the report is we know there's other work happening.

It could be universities, it could be other things.

We're meeting local data.

So that is one huge piece of this provides some very local, very recent data that can be used sometimes to show the needs and why funding is important for the thing we're trying to do, other times to hopefully showcase, you know, some benefits that are taking place.

But again, using this as kind of a baseline, a base setting for what's happening in our community so that things keep moving forward.

We know we've shared the data with some of our community, coalitions that exist.

Food Rescue Partnershi is using some of this new data.

Quad Cities Heart Save Coalition has taken a look at it.

So it really gives everyone a bit of a pulse of where things are going.

And, really talk about the existing resources and the resiliency that exists in the community.

It's no good if you're just talking about what the challenges are, but really trying to talk as a community about, gosh, we have all of these things in place.

How do we build on that How do we keep moving forward?

So not looking at from a deficit perspective, but really looking at it as what more can this tell us about the direction we need to go?

Our thanks to the Executive Director of the Queen City Health Initiative, Nicole Kirchner, and the Deputy Director of the Scott County Health Department, Brooke Barns.

Here's something that's good for our health getting out and enjoying some of the activities in our area.

So let's check in with visit Quad Cities with a look at events jus around the corner in the city's.

Check out the things to do this week in the Quad Cities.

Start off with a Christmas light display at the Mississippi Valley Fair on December 2nd.

Next, see the winter lights at the Quad City Botanical Center on December 4th.

Attend a holiday cooki walk in Bazaar on December 6th at the Moline Township Activity Center.

Or check out the Inner Stellar Sounds and Stillness at the figgy Art Museum on December 7th.

Finally, enjoy the musical Annie on December 8th at the Spotlight Theater.

For more events like these, check out our events calendar at visit Quad cities.com.

Next week on the city's how the voices of hundreds of middle school students coul shape the future of education.

And get your pajamas ready.

The Putnam Museum has a party for you.

That's next week on.

The city's on the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device and streaming on your computer.

Thanks for taking some time to join us.

As we talk about the issues on the city's.

At VCU.

We've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial health and we are here.

I am VCU is a proud supporter of Wqpt.

Public affairs programing on Wqpt is brought to yo by the Singh Group at Merrill, serving the wealth managemen needs of clients in the region for over 35 years.