New Brown County effort to target obesity, mental health and alcohol/drug misuse

Doug Schneider | Green Bay Press Gazette

GREEN BAY - Obesity. Mental health. Drug and alcohol abuse.

Addressing those key issues in Brown County will be the focus a health plan to be announced this week.

The county's 2018-2020 Community Health Improvement Plan, to be unveiled at a news conference Friday, will launch what's billed as "a strategic effort" to improve conditions in three areas that representatives of 50 local agencies identified as priorities. The goal: produce improvements in those areas in the next three years.

RELATED: Contribute to Brown County health needs assessment

"This plan is many months in the making, and I’m proud of how it’s turned out," said Anna Destree, Brown County's health officer, and leader of a steering committee involved in the report. "The community partners involved have been great."

The project also included input from the public.

About 125 people met in a "community health summit" in October and identified these as priority issues:

»Too many Brown County residents are at an unhealthy weight.

Among adults, 28 percent are obese, 20 percent report engaging in no physical activity, and 10 percent have little access to nutritious food, according to a copy of the 31-page plan reviewed by USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. Obesity increases the risk of other health problems.

»Too many county residents experience poor mental health.

The county's suicide rate is almost 50 percent higher than the state's; 55 county residents took their lives in 2016. County residents reported experiencing 3.4 "poor mental health days" in a recent month. There is one mental health provider for every 620 county residents.

»Too many county residents struggle because of alcohol and drug misuse.

Brown County's figure of 27 percent of adults reporting engaging in binge-drinking is tied for the highest in the state. Fifty-eight percent of Brown County's traffic deaths are alcohol-related, third highest in Wisconsin and far above the state average of 37 percent. The report says excessive drinking costs the county $318 million, or more than $1,200 per person.

The coalition that prepared the plan calls itself "Beyond Health." The group includes representatives from three major regional health providers — Aurora BayCare Medical Center, Bellin Health and Hospital Sisters Health System — as well as from the Wisconsin Department of Human Services' Division of Public Health, Brown County United Way, and the county and De Pere health departments.

Leaders on Friday are expected to discuss their plans to promote healthy foods and beverages; work to make mental health services, information, and education more accessible; and change community attitudes, behaviors and beliefs about alcohol and drug use and abuse.

Previous Community Health Improvement Plans have reported some success. The report says a group launched in 2012 and now known as the Brown County Oral Health Partnership hired three dentists, significantly reduce the times that Medicaid patients had to wait for a dental appointment and implemented the "Healthy Smiles for Mom and Baby" program.