A new Health Blueprint for Southwest Virginia is proposing solutions to the grave health challenges that beset the area.
I'm from Southwest Virginia. It's a beautiful place with many kind, wonderful people. But the collapse of the coal mining industry and the spread of opioids have caused real hardship. People often have to get by on very little. Many people don't have health insurance. Rates of smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity are high.
The new Health Blueprint aims to address just these types of issues. It offers three main recommendations:
- Increase healthcare access using screening programs, telehealth and remote monitoring. This would include establishing telehealth opportunities at places such as libraries, EMS headquarters and pharmacies, as well as providing school-based health services.
- Address substance use, trauma and poverty by offering integrated mental and behavioral health services, including medication management, trauma treatment and child abuse and neglect services, both in person and via telehealth.
- Promote healthy eating and exercise through nutrition management and physical activity education, including diabetes management, both in person and through telehealth.
These recommendations were developed in no small part based on a survey of local residents. Survey participants ranked the top three health problems for the region’s people as diabetes, cancer and either heart disease or substance overdose.
The most cited health concern for the area as a whole was the combination of “income/poverty,” “substance use” and “traumatic stress." Coming in second was “access to quality health care” and “geographic distance and other barriers to services." “Diet/nutrition/exercise” and “education” came third.
In terms of programs that could improve health in the region, survey participants most often suggested “partnerships providing substance-use treatment.” That was followed by “mental health treatment using video visits” and “partnerships providing health services for children and families.“ Third was "informing people about how to prevent and manage diabetes.”
As you can see, the new plans hopes to address just those issues. It was assembled by the University of Virginia College at Wise’s Healthy Appalachia Institute, the Southwest Virginia Health Authority, UVA Health’s Center for Telehealth and a coalition of residents and regional healthcare providers.