EVANSTON — The PATCH (Planned Approach to Community Health) coalition met on Wednesday, April 12, to continue its work identifying and addressing Uinta County’s health struggles.

The group’s goal is to encourage healthy living in Uinta County, focusing on nutrition, activity and mental health. In order to do that, the participants want to identify the root cause(s) of Uinta County’s problems and find paths for people to fix them. 

Uinta County Public Health nurse manager Kim Proffit said a new county health ranking for Wyoming was recently released from the University of Wisconsin, and although Uinta County is not doing well, it moved up on the list in health outcomes — and is now third from the last instead of second from the last. (Carbon and Fremont counties ranked the worst on the list.)

Representatives from many of the county’s health-oriented groups spent most of the meeting brainstorming about what kind of resources the county already has as well as ways to take on the problems. 

One of the root health problem causes suggested is that people get stuck in bad patterns or lifestyles after a prior decision or situation. Another root cause of struggles — or intensifier — is environmental situations like layoffs, lifestyle, family relationships, poverty and substance use. 

Attendees also brainstormed about the two focus areas: mental health, and chronic disease and obesity. Some possible fixes for mental health struggles are activity, eliminating a stigma against mental illness, better education and vitamins (the vitamins could help because a lack of light can lead to a Vitamin D deficiency here). Root causes ranged from poverty, abuse, lifestyle choices, job loss, isolation and lack of support, substance use, generational poverty, adverse childhood experiences and more. 

Kim Proffit said an ACE (adverse childhood experiences) study found a series of experiences that are connected to chronic diseases.

“They were looking at thousands and thousands of adults and doing these kind of health history interviews,” she said, “and they found ... this list of adverse childhood experiences, which included abuse, sexual abuse, seeing someone use drugs, having a parent either with a mental health issue or a parent in prison, ... death of a parent and even separation (... divorce).” 

“The more you have of these, the more likely you are to have this and chronic disease,” she finished. “So ... definitely home stuff is a root cause there.” 

Root causes of physical health issues, especially chronic disease and obesity, were diet and exercise, poverty (including access to healthcare and exercise opportunities), education in the schools and without, the ability to put education into practice (e.g. students might not be able to put their nutrition learning into use at home), motivation, transportation, home life, easily available junk foods, electronics (which also lead to mental health problems because of isolation) and social factors. 

Jill Proffit also suggested the term “nutritional plan” instead of “diet” because a diet is perceived as taking away or restricting things, whereas a nutritional plan has a goal and positive direction. However, some attendees pointed out that poverty can make poor nutritional choices more accessible since junk food is cheaper. 

“It hurts my heart when I see food stamps being used to buy soda, boxes and boxes of mac and cheese, chips and Ramen noodles,” Kim Proffit said.

The ultimate question, though is what people can do to encourage healthy choices, to ensure people have options for exercise and support and the resources to thrive. 

Kim Proffit then suggested the group split into five task groups in future: healthy activity, healthy eating, healthy living (including mental health, particularly depression, anxiety and substance abuse), overhead (including fundraising and public relations) and education. 

Those present threw out some ideas for activities to begin organizing. An overarching idea was to establish an overall rewards program like a passport, where people can get “points” for certain activities. Bridges Wraparound representative April Lange said it would be a good idea to incorporate nutrition, activities and self-esteem in the program, much like what the Rec Center used to do by encouraging people to try different classes for rewards. 

Evanston Youth Club representative Emileigh Hillstead said PATCH needs to keep location in mind when organizing activities. She pointed out that Hamblin Park or the Grass Valley trailer park are within walking distance of some communities and are much more accessible than the traditional venues like the Roundhouse & Railyards Complex or the Bear Pavilion. 

“If we really want to make a change and we really want to get in there, we need to think about the location,” Hillstead said. “It needs to be easy access, where the kids are like, ... ‘Oh, yeah, I can walk; it’s only down the street.’”  

She also said it’s vital to get buy-in from the community the PATCH coalition is hoping to help.