The news was sobering, but the hope uplifting as 60 representatives from nine counties gathered in Iola Monday morning to discuss the health of their districts.
County commissioners, city managers, health and business professionals found common ground at Monday’s Southeast Kansas Health Summit organized by Thrive Allen County and the Kansas Health Institute based in Topeka.
The southeast quadrant of the state is the least healthy according to research conducted by the KHI.
As a region, southeast Kansas is above state averages when it comes to obesity, illiteracy, those who do not routinely visit a doctor or dentist, do not obtain a high school diploma, have households with children in poverty and experience violence.
Health should be thought of in the broad sense, said Dr. Gianfranco Pezzino, a public health physician with the KHI.
“Health is the complete physical, mental and social well-being of an individual, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity,” Pezzino said at the three-hour forum conducted in the Creitz Recital Hall of the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
THE REGION’S substandard demographics “is not new news,” said Krista Posti of the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas in her presentation. “As a region, we’ve experienced 100 years of poverty,” beginning with the introduction of low-paying jobs with the zinc smelter industry.
“Fifteen years ago, we had the same numbers,” Posti said of the report’s findings.
And it was exactly at that time that Posti was jolted into action.
Posti told of encountering a four-year-old who could not eat solid food because he had no teeth. Drinking sugar water from a bottle as an infant had rotted his teeth.
The child was a victim of his parent’s ignorance.
In her role as director of the Community Health Center in Pittsburg, Posti has effected positive change across three counties, including Allen. It’s through Pittsburg’s health center and Thrive Allen County that Dr. Kelly Richardson was recruited to practice dentistry in Iola, targeting primarily the low-income population.
Posti said that more than half of the region’s residents are considered low-income.
In southeast Kansas, “two out of three children are born in poverty. One out of three has visible oral decay. One out of seven experiences child abuse — the highest level in the state. Half of all children by age 2 don’t have their immunizations.”
These children are born into households where illiteracy is high and where one in four adults are disabled before they are 65.
“How bad does it have to get?” Posti asked rhetorically.
TO LIFT the somber mood, participants were given a “blank check” by Posti to fund three goals that would help their specific counties.
County representatives discovered similar concerns through the exercise, though some differed in their priorities.
Allen County targeted the need to recruit health care providers, expand educational opportunities and build recreation and health facilities in an effort to attract professionals to the area and encourage better lifestyle decisions.
Bourbon County focused on obesity and changing lifestyle behaviors by building a recreation center and walking trails.
Cherokee County targeted its teen pregnancy rate — the highest in the state — with better family planning, prenatal care and pregnancy prevention programs.
Education was the focus for Crawford County. More learning opportunities could be developed through partnerships with community service organizations whose members could share their expertise, participants ventured. That county’s high level of lead in its soil was also a concern.
Labette County wanted to offer better opportunities for child care, pre-schools and enhanced transportation. Citizens also wanted to focus attention on the wages offered by area industries, citing that most paid in the $7-$8 an hour range.
It also wanted to erase the “Mason-Dixon Line” that exists between northern and southern parts of the county and foster better cooperation between the county’s towns.
Perhaps because Neosho County was represented by only one person, Donna Bates of the Neosho County Health Department, she said the county’s most urgent need was to staff the health department fulltime with a physician. A physician currently serves the department one-half day a month primarily for family planning needs, she said.
High unemployment is the main concern for Wilson County, its people said. A jobs corps program could teach job-seekers how to meet the expectations of employers, a participant said. “People here need to learn what it’s like to go to work every day,” he said.
Tapping into the experience of its older adults could help. “They have a wealth of talent and experience to share,” a Wilson County resident said.
Woodson County said better educational opportunities would help counter its low standings. Out of 105 counties, Woodson is Number 105 for the number of women who smoke during their pregnancies; at 104 for teen births, and 103 for its unemployment rate.
CHANGING behaviors, such as smoking and wearing seatbelts, can make a a significant and immediate difference to the region’s rankings, Pezzino said.
Almost one-fourth of pregnant women smoke in southeast Kansas, putting them at risk of having low-weight babies less able to combat illnesses and making them susceptible to premature deaths.
Of SEK drivers, 42 percent don’t regularly buckle up, resulting in more than double the number of deaths in vehicular accidents compared to the state average.
Participants ended the forum with a commitment to work across county lines to form regional efforts to lift living standards and solve social problems. The next step in the campaign will come in July, when representatives from each county will gather again to agree on priorities for action.
