Liberty, NY – According to the latest Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF’s) County Health Rankings and Roadmap report, Sullivan County is improving in overall health.
“I am very excited to be able to share that although we clearly still have much to improve, there is a lot of good news for Sullivan County in this year’s report.,” observed Sullivan County Health & Human Services Commissioner John Liddle. “While RWJF no longer provides numerical rankings at the county level, a careful calculation of the data appears to indicate Sullivan has risen from 60th to 57th out of 62 counties across New York State.”
Released this week to the public, the report offers an exceptional level of detail and data that health officials across the nation will use to inform and guide public policy. The report can be found at https://www.countyhealthrankings.org.
“This year’s report reveals that our efforts to better the health of Sullivan County are working,” Liddle noted. “And I would note that most of the provided data is at least two years old. So my hope here is that the interventions we all started post-pandemic are now really starting to kick in, and that this is just the start of a longer-term trend.”
“We are very pleased with this year’s overall rankings; and especially the individual areas where our community health has improved,” agreed Denise Frangipane, CEO of Sullivan 180, a key nonprofit County partner in bettering health. “Again we see the tenacity of the Sullivan County community; and the impact of our collective and collaborative efforts. This success is exactly the momentum we need to continue our work together to build a healthy Sullivan County.”
Highlights of the report include the following:
- Sullivan County rated in the top half of counties nationwide for health outcomes (length of life and quality of life)
- Year over year, Sullivan County’s health improved across 14 factors:
- Access to healthy food
- Decrease in physical inactivity
- Decrease in excessive drinking
- Decrease in sexually transmitted infections
- Ratio of dentists to population
- Ratio of mental health providers to population
- Number of mammograms as a percentage of population
- Percentage of population with college education
- Decrease in unemployment
- Decrease in children in poverty
- Decrease in income inequality
- Decrease in children in single-parent households
- Decrease in overcrowding/high cost/lack of kitchen/lack of indoor plumbing in housing
- Decrease in percentage of people driving alone to work
- Seven factors remained unchanged year over year:
- Adult smoking
- Teen birth rate
- Lack of medical insurance
- High school graduation rate
- Air pollution
- Drinking water violations
- Long commutes
- Eight factors got worse year over year:
- Adult obesity
- Access to exercise opportunities
- Alcohol-impaired driving deaths
- Ratio of primary care physicians to population
- Number of preventable hospital stays
- Flu vaccination rate
- Number of people in social associations
- Number of injury deaths
“Though we outperformed New York State as a whole, very difficult challenges remain,” acknowledged Public Health Director Karen Holden. “Chief among them are access to primary care providers, reducing the number of preventable hospital stays and what are known in the study as ‘injury deaths’ – which includes auto accidents but is primarily driven in our area by substance use and suicide. Children in poverty is also a significant concern – 1 in 4 children in Sullivan County lives in poverty, according to the data provided.”
“With the crucial help of our community supporters and partners, our best way forward continues to be maintaining a strong focus on the work of the Drug Task Force, increasing access to all forms of medical and behavioral health care across the County via our referral networks (United Sullivan and Unite Us), and by working to increase access to housing across the entire socio-economic spectrum,” affirmed Liddle.
“Sullivan County is on an upward swing, and this Legislature aims to continue that progress, for the benefit and good health of all our residents,” added Legislature Chair and District 2 Legislator Nadia Rajsz. “I’m grateful to our Health & Human Services Division, our Public Health Department, and our community partners, all of whom have contributed (and will continue contributing) to this much-needed improvement.”