Non-Profits Meet With Health Department

Seeking Solutions For Better Hendry/Glades Health Care

LABELLE, FL. -- The Hendry-Glades Health Department invited area non-profit leaders to a meeting this week to discuss the latest Public Health System Assessment. The new study indicates Hendry and Glades counties share similar problems in the health behavior of it's residents and how the government and private industry responds.

A ranking system has been developed by the University of Wisconsin to compare all U.S. counties with the goal of encouraging improvements in local health behaviors, considering health factors for each locality.

(Photo: Mary Ruth Prouty explains the 2012 Hendry-Glades Health Performance Assessment to local leaders)

All community entities can contribute to the well-being of the community, including public, private and voluntary, as well as individuals, formal and informal associations.

Pat Dobbins, Mary Ruth Prouty, Brenda Barnes, and Judy Paskvan provided two dozen community non-profit and community leaders with an outline of the Center For Disease Control's ten essential public health services required for the foundation of public health activity.

Hendry county ranks #35 out of 67 Florida counties in overall health outcomes, a weighted composite of mortality (premature death)  and morbidity (low birth rates, poor physical and mental health)

But, in Health Factors, Hendry ranks way down the list of Florida's counties at 66th.

Health Factors combines the four components of Health Behaviors (smoking, drinking, obesity, STD, etc), Clinical Care (number of physicians, preventable hospital stays, diabetic and mammography screeening), Social/Economic Factors (education levels, unemployment, poverty, crime, single parents), and Physical Environment (air pollution, recreational facilities, healthy food access, percentage of fast food restaurants).

Hendry comes in 65th in the Clinical Care category because of the high number of uninsured, and low number of physicians, and ranks 67th for the social/economic factors because of the high number of children in poverty and single-parent households, and higher than average violent crime rate.

Glades county ranks #58 in overall Health Outcomes, but rank badly at 64th in premature deaths.

Glades ranked 57th in overall Health Factors. But, it ranks very low at 66th in the clinical care category due to the high number of uninsured, high number of preventable hospital stays, and low mammography screenings.

Complete Ranking Scores for Hendry-Glades:

University of Wisconsin County Health Ranking - Hendry

University of Wisconsin County Health Ranking - Glades