National Public Health Week “The Healthiest Nation by 2030”

Everyone deserves the opportunity to live a long, healthy life free from preventable disease and injury. In fact, that’s what public health workers strive toward every single day. Inside Mendocino County's 3 public health offices, public health workers ensure the basic foundations necessary for good health - clean water, safe food, healthy eating habits, and access to life-saving vaccines, just to name a few. But to truly become the healthiest nation by 2030, we must also take momentous steps toward achieving health equity. And achieving health equity means taking on the social determinants of health that often put good health and longevity out of reach for so many in Mendocino County. We want to change that dynamic — and it will take all hands on deck to do it.

Healthy Mendocino has drafted Mendocino County's Community Health Improvement Plan, (CHIP) setting goals and measurable objectives that really stretch us to address the social determinants of health.  The CHIP includes the 5 target areas of poverty, housing, mental health, childhood trauma and family and child wellness. Consider joining an action team in your community. Visit www.healthymendocino.org and look for Action Teams to see what Public Health, along with the larger public health system of partners, is doing to achieve health equity in Mendocino County. 

Related, we at Public Health analyze when and how people die, and at what rate, to help us plan targeted prevention efforts.  Below is a summary of what we know from our data analysis.

MENDOCINO COUNTY MORTALITY
January 2015 TO March 2018
(n=2,918)

The following is a description of causes of death over a three year period in Mendocino County, stratified by ethnicity. These are residents of Mendocino County, who may have died in the county or died in other places.

• Heart attacks, strokes and cancers are among the leading causes of death.
• The East Asian / South Asian and Pacific Islander group includes a high number of deaths by drowning.
• Of concern is the relatively high number of perinatal or congenital condition deaths among the Hispanic population indicating a possible area for prenatal interventions.
• Deaths from drug overdoses, suicides and assaults are highest in the Native American group at 9.4%, Hispanics rank second highest at 8.3%, and Whites third at 5.2%.
• Deaths from mental or behavioral disorders are highest in the White population.
• Native Americans have the highest rates of death from endocrine disorders such as diabetes.
• The African-American group is very small numbering only 19 deaths during this time period.

Join Public Health and Healthy Mendocino working on these important health equity issues.  For additional data, please contact Julie Beardsley at Beardsleyj@mendocinocounty.org  or at 472-2684.

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Julie Beardsley is the Senior Public Health Analyst for Mendocino County. She holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Hawaii and has lived in the northern Bay Area for many years.