Daily Mining Gazette/Joshua Vissers The Baraga County Board, including the newest member Dan Robillard, at Thursday's meeting, which was rescheduled due to Veterans' Day.

L’ANSE — At Thursday’s rescheduled meeting of the Baraga County Board, health officer Kate Beer from the Western U.P. Health Department presented findings on Baraga County from the 2018 Community Health Needs Assessment.

“The aging population is significant,” Beer said.

More than 18 percent of Baraga County’s population is over the age of 65, and one of every six households are a senior citizen living alone. These numbers are important because the elderly have an increased incidence of chronic diseases that require long-term care, and the county needs the resources of young, working people to provide for them. Seniors sometimes need someone to do things as simple as remind them to take medication or shovel the walk. If a senior living alone falls, it could be days before anyone finds them to help.

“It exacerbates the situation,” Beer said.

Alcohol and drug use are also factoring into the community health of Baraga County, with a heavy drinking rate 4 percent higher than the U.P. average of 14 percent, and a binge drinking rate six points higher than the U.P. rate of 12.9 percent.

Survey responses put drug abuse and health insurance costs as the community priorities.

“I think the concerns are well-placed,” Beer said.

She said that businesses look for communities with a healthy workforce to supply good employees. That means attracting new businesses to the area, which many local governments in Baraga County say is a priority, would be easier with some of these community health issues solved or brought in line with state averages.

“It’s a cultural change,” Beer said. “It takes a long time.”

The assessment includes data from all 15 counties of the U.P. and is a collaboration of more than 30 partners. The assessment has been performed twice before, in 2012 and 2015, but never before at this scale.

The health department is emphasizing socioeconomic impacts to health with the results. They say that only 20 percent of health outcomes over a person’s lifetime are due to the access and quality of healthcare received. They say 10 percent is due to where a person lives, 30 percent is due to personal behaviors like smoking, diet and exercise, and 40 percent is actually the result of socioeconomic factors. These include things like education level, employment status, social support and the community that a person lives in, making it important for community health to address problems as a community rather than leaving it to individuals.