SUBSTANCE ABUSE TOPS PUBLIC HEALTH CONCERNS

What the needs assessments are used for:

The ultimate goal of the needs assessment is to create a plan to steer
county health care development until 2020. That work will begin on
Oct. 3 with a meeting in the Frisco Community Center from 11 a.m. to 2
p.m. Those interested in participating in the health needs strategic
planning committee are welcome to attend.

- - Andy Bruner

Upcoming discussion

Residents will have an opportunity to share their opinions about
health reform with members of the Blue Ribbon Commission for Health
Care Reform at a community meeting in Silverthorne from 5-8 p.m. on
Friday, Oct. 12, at the Silverthorne Library, 651 Center Circle.

SUMMIT COUNTY - After 18 months of work, several Summit County health
care providers and officials have identified six major needs in the
county's health care system.

The list is the result of a countywide study done every five years for
Summit County Public Health. The assessment's steering committee
decided the six prorities for improvement based on resident surveys,
focus groups and talks with local health experts conducted by
Denver-based Corona Research. The final list of needs includes:

. access to and capacity of mental health care, including substance
abuse treatment;

. affordability of services;

. presence of services, including care for low-income residents,
specialty services and senior services;

. awareness of services;

. nutrition;

. and healthy lifestyles.

Two key issues identified in the assessment but not included among the
needs priorities are the health of Summit County's Hispanic
population, which the study found falls short of the general
population in many areas, and the effect the cost of living has on
people's ability to pay for health care.

Deb Crook, Summit County director of public health, said the needs
assessment should lead to improved local health care. She said some of
the needs identified in the 2002 assessment, such as the lack of a
hospital and affordable childcare, have been addressed thanks to the
community coming together to face existing problems.

Mental health

For the needs assessment, residents were asked to rank the quality of
different areas of health care in Summit County. Mental health and
substance abuse got the lowest scores, at 39 and 41 percent of
respondents satisfied respectively.

Addressing residents' concerns about mental health care will take
several forms, Crook said.

"It's such a large bucket," she explained. "There's a lot of pieces
that go under mental health."

Crook highlighted three concerns: the fact many health insurance plans
don't cover mental health, too few area mental health facilities and a
lack of local drug and alcohol treatment options.

Paul Chodkowski, administrator of St. Anthony Summit Medical Center,
believes the public's concern about drug and alcohol abuse is a major
factor in mental health topping the area's health need.

In addition to substance abuse, Crook believes the high number of
people with high-stress jobs or multiple jobs in Summit County makes
mental health a priority.

And the county isn't alone in this need, Chodkowski said. "All across
the country, it's an underfunded area," he said of mental health.

But Chodkowski has seen Summit County overcome funding difficulties
before to bring in needed health resources - namely, the hospital two
years ago. "Summit County is a unique county and might be able to
generate some local funding streams," he said.

Crook said a major improvement in mental health care would be a
substance abuse facility. "As the population increases or the need
increases, we'll be looking at some sort of beds or halfway house,"
she said, but added, "I don't think that's going to happen tomorrow."

Presence of services

Because of Summit County's small year-round population - the 2005
census pegged the total at slightly more than 28,000 - many residents
have to go elsewhere for specialized areas of care, the needs
assessment found.

But the situation has improved drastically in just a few years, with
the addition of St. Anthony and the entire medical campus in Frisco.
While bringing in a hospital showed the community could take creative
steps to overcome its small population, Crook said people will have to
deal with traveling out of the area for some kinds of care until the
county grows substantially.

"We have good, quality places that are here in the community," Crook
said. But, she added, "It's a small community, so we're not going to
have everything."

Chodkowski said the best long-term solution may be for Summit County
to partner with its neighbors to attract more services to the High
Country. There could be more services nearby, even if not exactly
local, he said.

Awareness

Underlying all the issues above is the fact many people said they
don't know what health services are available in Summit County. Simply
fixing that problem could prove a partial solution to the perception
that there aren't enough services or that health care is too high,
experts said.

"The steering committee, when we reviewed the findings, looked at what
would it be that we could go after that would potentially benefit all
of these areas? And the number one is knowledge of services," Crook
said.

While residents legitimately pointed to a lack of specialists in the
area, Summit Foundation director Lee Zimmmerman said an information
campaign on the county's health resources could solve some of people's
concerns.

"In many of the areas, we have enough resources to meet the needs, so
in some cases I think it's an information and delivery problem,"
Zimmerman said.

Experts agreed improving awareness will take various health providers
working together, because the current 'find it when you need it'
approach isn't working.

"There are a lot of ways that people enter or find out about different
aspects of the medical system," Zimmerman said. "That sort of
disjointed way doesn't really allow for a complete knowledge of the
system."

Several members of the assessment steering committee suggested
compiling a one-stop shop, such as a pamphlet or website, for local
medical information.

"In Summit County we have a proven track record of coming together to
address and solve community needs," Chodkowski said, noting the way
the assessment itself was conducted is promising. "In larger
metropolitan areas, you never get this sort of grassroots
collaboration among private and public providers of services."