Survey says: Mental health services most pressing need

Local residents who completed a recent online survey for Three Rivers Health identified mental health services as the most pressing need that would improve the health of their family and neighbors.
The question was part of a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA), the purpose of which was to provide a functioning tool to guide the hospital as it develops its plans to not only to care for the sick, but work to improve the overall health of the community it serves.
A link to the survey appeared on the Three Rivers Health website. One hundred and eighty-six people responded, with the majoring of them being female (72%, compared to 28% male) and white/Caucasian (88%).
For the question that asked residents what is needed to improve the health of their family and neighbors, residents were given the option to check all that applied.  Mental health services received the highest percentage of the 186 responses, at 57% or 107 people.   Specialty physicians, at 43%, ranked second, followed by healthier foods at 39%, wellness services at 37% and job opportunities at 32%.
When asked where they got most of their health information, 81.2 % responded from their doctor or health professional, 54.8% said internet and 29% said family and friends.  The hospital, at 14.5%, ranked fourth.
Another question asked residents if they’d had a routine physical in the past two years, with 69.9% saying yes and 28.5% saying no.
When asked to assess their overall health, just 7% of survey respondents described it as excellent while 47% said very good, 40% said fair and the rest said poor.
Blood pressure/sugar checks were listed most often by residents as the preventative procedure they’ve had in the past 12 months, at 64.5%.  The rest of the top five were vision screens (58%), dental cleaning/X-rays (57%), flu shots (47%) and physical exams (45%).
The survey also asked residents to describe their health insurance status.  Forty-eight percent said they were insured through their employer while 32% indicated that they were on Medicare.
As for their greatest health challenge?  Being overweight/obese topped the list at 45%, followed by mental health issues at 36%, joint pain at 32% and high blood pressure at 25%.
Lastly, 89% indicated that they’d used health services within the past 12 months, with 79 percent indicating that they go to a physician’s office for routine care. Their other choices on the latter were the health department, emergency room, urgent care clinic, 307 healthcare and Cody Regional Health.