Maine health priorities include mental health, substance use

A report launched Wednesday exhibits psychological well being, substance use and entry to care are among the many state’s high well being priorities.

The Maine Shared Group Well being Wants Evaluation, which is printed each three years, is a joint effort involving the state’s largest well being care suppliers and the Maine Heart for Illness Management and Prevention.

Along with naming priorities for enhancing Mainers’ well being, the 2022 report lists important statistics, together with main causes of loss of life. The report notes that in simply two years, COVID-19 turned the third main explanation for loss of life behind most cancers, ranked first, and coronary heart illness. As of Wednesday, 2,463 Mainers have died with COVID-19 because the pandemic started in Maine in March 2020.

The report additionally highlights “social determinants of well being” as a precedence. These embody “entry to wholesome meals, housing, water and relationships,” in accordance with the report. Additionally, diabetes, oral well being, heart problems, older grownup well being care and most cancers have been singled out as different priorities.

The report used information evaluation, 17 group boards, 9 group sponsored occasions and 1,000 oral surveys to succeed in its findings.

The 2022 report contains enter from 10 of Maine’s various communities and seeks to focus on the wants of deprived populations that features those that are Black, deaf or arduous of listening to, immigrants, these with low incomes and the homeless, in accordance with a press launch from Karen Cashman, director of public relations, advertising and marketing and communications for Northern Gentle Well being.

The statewide report and 16 County Stories will probably be utilized by hospitals, district councils, coverage makers and the Maine CDC to create group well being enchancment plans.

Within the space of psychological well being, the report states that “the provision of suppliers was probably the most often talked about indicator.”

“Group members have been involved that the pandemic exacerbated psychological well being points throughout the state, resulting in elevated isolation, trauma and stress,” the report states. “These with a psychological well being prognosis famous extraordinarily lengthy waitlists for companies, highlighting a necessity for extra high-quality psychological well being companies.”