JANESVILLE — Listening to Karen Cain describe Rock County’s poor health rankings can be a downer.
Cain, interim director at the county health department, even admits it.
“As I look at this summary … it seems pretty depressing to me,” she said. “It looks like we have a lot of things we need to work on in our county.”
Consider a few facts about Rock County:
-- Food stamp participation increased 37 percent from 2002 to 2006, compared to the state average of 33 percent.
-- The county ranks 65th out of 72 counties and city of Milwaukee in the percentage of students not graduating as expected.
-- The county and city of Beloit have the second-highest African Americans infant mortality rate among counties and cities in the state. For every white child that dies, 4.1 African American children die in the county.
-- More than one in four adults smoke, or 28 percent, and the percent of women who smoke during pregnancy is 19.2 percent.
-- The county’s self-sufficiency wage ranks the 10th highest in the state. The wage needs to be sufficient—after-tax and without public assistance—to support a single parent with two children. In Rock County, it is $17.39, while the state average is $14.14.
But Cain’s explanation of the data Tuesday morning was only the start of a community meeting at the Rock County Job Center to discuss and gather ideas to improve the county’s health. The meeting brought together more than 40 stakeholders from businesses, agencies, organizations, governments and residents from across the county.
“We have a lot of health issues in Rock County, and the health department can’t solve them all,” Cain said.
The University of Wisconsin’s 2008 County Health Rankings released in November showed Rock County ranked 69th out of 73 counties and the city of Milwaukee for health determinants.
The health department has started its first-ever county health needs assessment, and its findings will help develop a five-year plan, Cain said. The department will organize and prioritize information, prepare a report to present to the same community group in spring, then seek approval from the Rock County Board of Health.
Tuesday’s attendees broke into small groups to discuss ideas, and Cain said she repeatedly heard concerns about access to health care and about health disparities.
“We have a lot of uninsured and underinsured,” she said. “Typically, those are the individuals that don’t seek preventive health care then end up with more serious conditions later on.”
While that issue might be bigger than the health department can fully tackle, Cain said she sees other areas the department can address such as obesity, physical inactivity, poor nutrition and childhood immunization.
She said she’s gratified by the cross section of people who attended because it shows many people are concerned about the county’s health.
“There is more that can be done if we can bring together a coalition, a group of people that want to tackle more issues than just what the health department can take on,” she said.