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HEALTH GUIDE
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Group moves forward with Hill County Health Improvement Plan Sets reducing alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy and helping with mental health problems as first priorities Tim Leeds tleeds@havredailynews.com With a comprehensive health assessment and a planning meeting under its belt, a group comprising local health care organizations is moving forward with plans to address three main health problems in the county. At a planning meeting in August sponsored by Northern Montana Health Care, Hill County Health Department and Bullhook Community Health Center, a group narrowed down a lengthy list of health concerns to three top priorities to address first: alcohol abuse, teen pregnancies and mental illness. Hill County Public Health Director Danielle Golie said she expects those topics to be a main part of the agenda at the Hill County Health Consortium’s meeting Nov. 19. Golie said she expects the consortium to set task forces to work on those issues along with the committees that were formed at the August planning meeting.
A new focus on a local strategy Havre Daily News/Lindsay Brown, file Desiree Norden, case manager for the Montana Medicaid Health Improvement Plan, from left, Hill County Extension Agent Lea Ann Larson and Bullhook Community Health Center Executive Director Cindy Smith discuss Hill County health issues at a meeting Aug. 29. The group at the meeting set reducing alcohol abuse and teen pregnancies and addressing mental health issues as the top three priorities on which to focus in a Health Improvement Plan being drafted for Hill County.
The 2103 health assessment used in the planning meeting, available online at the Northern Montana Health Care website at http://www.nmhcare.org/?id=950, is the latest in efforts to assess the health of Hill County, started by the county Health Department a decade ago.
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federal taxes and $17 million was state and local taxes. Another factor linked to the issue of teen pregnancy, and a big part of why it is one of the three health issues for the improvement plan, is the remarkably high incidence of sexually transmitted disease in Hill County. Montana has a higher than national average percentage of teens of both genders having sex by ninth grade, said Meredith, and a rate of sexual experience by 12th grade that is equivalent to the national percentage — in the mid-60 percent range for both genders. If they’re having sex, they are at risk for sexually transmitted infection, Meredith added, and Hill County’s rate of STIs is more than 12 times higher than the rest of the nation’s.
What is being done in Hill County Part of what the committees for the three focus areas will be doing for the Community Health Improvement Plan is to look at what systems and programs are in place in the county already. Everyone is working with a minimal budget and personnel, Meredith said, and this is an opportunity for them to get together to fulfill their needs with pooled resources. For the issue of teen pregnancy, the preventative systems in place include sex ed at the schools and Hill County Family Planning, which work to prevent pregnancy through education and access to contraception. Once a teen becomes pregnant, other systems and programs in the community help to ensure the health and success of both the teen mother and the baby. These include the Health Department programs like the home visiting nurse program and WIC, support and education programs through Early Head Start, n o n p r o f i t g r o u p s, s u c h a s H i - L i n e Pregnancy Resource Center, and Family Planning. Meredith said that the programs in place now and the entities working on the improvement plan are “just trying to help people be more successful in life,” and that they work to “help keep the life picture in mind of having a future and finishing school and doing all of that. "If that person at 15 has a baby," she added, “how can we help keep her in school and not have another unplanned pregnancy?”
What will be done in Hill County Another component of the work to be done by the action committees is to create and implement a plan of action, determined with input from as many different
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We need a lot more community staeholders to come and be a part of our task groups. Danielle Golie Hill County Public Health Director
stakeholders in the community as possible, said Golie. Participants at the Aug. 29 meeting brainstormed possible measurable objective and strategies to meet the objectives. The group meeting on teen pregnancy came up with nine possible objectives, including lowering the teen pregnancy rate over the next three years; school completion for pregnant teens and adolescent parents; parent education opportunities; and risk management assessments for teens at Havre Middle School. The objectives will be pared down to about six measurable, attainable goals, s a i d C h r i s t e n O b r e s l ey, d i r e c t o r o f Northern Montana Health Care Foundation. Once the Community Health Improvement Plan is written the consortium will meet with its members and anyone in the community to come in to review it and see where and how they can contribute to the objectives. “We need a lot more community stakeholders to come and be a part of our task groups,” Golie said, people with a passion to address these issues. With Montana Department of Health and Human Services statistics showing that more than twice as many births are to Native American teens than white teens, it is important to have good representation of Native Americans in the action committee to provide a cultural perspective that will help the group be more effective, Meredith said. “The more voices we have, the better outcomes we’ll have, also,” said Obresley, who also pointed out that one of the proposed objectives was to get teen parents, both fathers and mothers, to participate in the teen-pregnancy action group to provide their unique perspective. “Once the Community Health Improvement Plan is done,” Obresley said, “it’s up to the entities involved to say where they can make a difference and work with the members of the committee. In the end, the teen pregnancy action committee will work on the objectives for the next three years then reassess what is working or not. At that point, the stakeholders will decide whether or not to continue or abandon each objective, she said. “As organizations,” she added, “we need to look at the Community Health Improvement Plan and say this is how we can have an impact.”
Statistics on Risky Behaviors Teens who engaged in risky behavior also engaged in other behaviors that increase risk for teen pregnancy. • Rarely or never wore seatbelt. • Rode with a driver who had been drinking • Drove when drinking • In a physical fight one or more times in last year • Smoked cigarettes in last 30 days • Smokeless tobacco use • Drank alcohol in last 30 days • Used marijuana during last 30 days Source: Montana Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2011