Kenosha County health leaders have taken the first steps in addressing what they have identified as the most pressing concerns in the community.
A Kenosha County Public Health survey, conducted every three years by KCPH in partnership with community healthcare providers, gives leaders a perspective on the health of the Kenosha County community, as well as sharing what residents considered to be the most pressing health-related concerns.
The latest data from nearly 1,000 county residents was collected online utilizing a revised list of survey questions, rather than in the past when they called 200 landlines and 200 cell phone numbers in the county.
Lori Plahmer, interim health director at Kenosha County Public Health, said the increased number of responses aided their efforts. “The more people we’re able to survey, the better our representation of the top issues can be,” Plahmer said.
On Wednesday, community health leaders met at the Kenosha County Center to discuss the survey’s findings and vote on the top three priorities.
Out of the Top 10 health-related concerns residents raised, members voted that access to affordable healthcare, mental health and drug and alcohol use, and access to affordable housing were the three most pressing issues.
That matched with the top three issues most residents listed in the survey as their greatest health-related concerns. Drug and alcohol use was combined with mental health, as members felt they were similar issues.
Affordable healthcare
Approximately 45% of surveyed residents listed access to affordable health care as one of their three largest health concerns in the county.
According to the report, healthcare must be reasonably close to where people live, be open at convenient times and have enough staffing. Critically, it must also be affordable, “so that people do not have to choose between healthcare and other priorities such as paying their rent.”
Compared to the rest of the state, Wisconsin trails in terms of primary care providers. Wisconsin has 1 primary care provider for every 1,240 residents, compared to Kenosha County’s 1 per 2,090.
Approximately 48% of those surveyed indicated they had delayed or did not receive dental, medical or prescription care in the last year, with 22% indicating they had delayed healthcare because of cost.
Lack of access to affordable healthcare most heavily impacts people of color, the survey indicated. Approximatey 50% of Black residents and 41% of Hispanic residents had gaps in their insurance coverage in the last year, compared to 12% of white residents.
Mental health and drug and alcohol use
Between 2019 and 2022, a total of 610 opioid-related ambulance calls occurred in Kenosha County, an average of three runs per week. There were 36 opioid-related deaths per 100,000 people per year in Kenosha County.
Since 2014, opioid-related deaths increasingly involved fentanyl.
Approximately 65% of Wisconsin adults reported alcohol use in the past 30 days, compared to the U.S. average off 55%. Kenosha County adults were slightly less likely to binge drink than Wisconsin adults, the report indicates.
Kenosha County has fewer mental health providers per person than the state average, with one provider for every 680 residents versus Wisconsin’s one per 420.
While 74% of respondents said they had an adequate support network that benefited their mental health, Black and Hispanic respondents were more likely to lack an adequate support network. Approximately 26% and 36% of Hispanic and Black respondents, respectively, reported an inadequate network, compared to 14% of white respondents.
Approximately 26% of survey respondents have been diagnosed or treated for anxiety in the past three years, and 21% were diagnosed or treated for depression in the past three years. There were 24 people who died by suicide in 2022, with 1.6% of all deaths in the past five years being suicides.
Affordable housing.
Approximately 44% of surveyed residents listed access to affordable housing as one of their three largest health concerns in Kenosha County.
Only 31% of survey respondents agreed there were affordable places to live in Kenosha County. Approximately 13% of Kenosha County households spend more than 50% of their income on housing, slightly higher than the statewide average of 11%.
In Kenosha County, 73% of white people own a home, versus 18% of Black people, a 55% gap.
What’s next?
Other health concerns residents raised were access to affordable healthy food, violence and crime, driving problems, obesity, racism and aging related issues.
Overall, survey respondents were 68% white, 12% Hispanic, 10% Black and 11% “other”. The incomes and educational backgrounds of respondents were varied. Respondents were predominantly female, 81%, to just 19% male. Roughly one out of three respondents were aged 18 to 34.
The report and subsequent vote were the first two steps of the five-step Kenosha County THRIVE Community Health Improvement Plan. The next step will be to develop a plan to address the concerns.
Members will split into three groups, each focusing on one issue, and meet three times over the summer. Plahmer said plans should be ready by the fall.
The first meetings for the three THRIVE Action Teams will be June 26th from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Kenosha County Job Center.
