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The Community Health Assessment (CHA) is the compiled report created by the Health Equity Alliance of Rock County (HEAR) using a variety of surveys, public assessments, focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and secondary data from state and national resources.

HEAR will use the findings of the report to create a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) which will be instituted in the next three to five years with HEAR involvement.

“The CHIP is in the planning stages with subcommittees working on each priority area,â€� HEAR coordinator Christine Gunn said in an email to ÃÛèÖÊÓƵ. “Currently, we have representatives from health systems, nonprofits and public organizations participating in the planning process and we will partner with more institutes, for example, places of worship, once we have the goals and interventions decided.â€�

Gunn added that a report on the CHIP will be available in the next couple of months to show what the subcommittees develop.

According to HEAR, the health priorities of the county are mental health, access to care, substance use, chronic disease, economic stability and the built environment. HEAR will focus on mental health and access to care in future projects, but the report says the group “encourages community partners to work on each health priority to improve the health of Rock County.�

The top strengths of Rock County, according to the 1,030 residents who answered, are access to recreation areas and good schools. The top areas for improvement, in order, are mental health, access to care, substance use, chronic disease and economic stability.

According to the report, Rock County has 166 mental health providers per 100,000 residents, lower than the rate for Wisconsin (189/100,000) and the U.S. (203/100,000), indicating a need for better accessibility to mental health services in the region.

Key quality of life findings presented from the report include that one-fourth of rental properties in Rock County are of poor quality, 42.3% of respondents say there aren’t enough safe and affordable houses and apartments in their community and 36% of Rock County households cannot afford their basic needs, including 25% of households that live above the federal poverty line.

These findings indicate a need to improve the quality and affordability of housing in the county, as many families struggle to find safe, quality housing within their budget.

Drug use is also an issue, as nearly one-fifth of Rock County high school students currently use an e-cigarette product and nearly one-half have tried one. Almost 40% of Rock County students said they believe that e-cigarette use has little or no risk to a personÃÛèÖÊÓƵ health. Additionally, the opioid overdose death rate in the county more than tripled from from about eight deaths/100,000 residents in 2010 to 25 deaths/100,000 residents in 2019.

The leading causes of death from 2017 to 2020 for the county were heart disease, cancer, accidents, respiratory diseases and strokes.

Positive findings of the report include the opinion of 68% of respondents who agree that there is available high-quality education in the county, compared to just 11% who disagreed with the statement. Also, 83% of students said they have an adult they can rely on other than a parent and the birth rate among teenagers in the county has been nearly cut in half over the last decade, from 44 births/1,000 females in 2011 to 24 births/1,000 females in 2021.