Mental Health and the related result are aligned with the following Healthy NC 2020 Focus Areas/ Objectives. 

• Mental Health 

How would we experience access to mental health resources in a timely and effective manner in our community?

Polk County's desire is to improve mental health within it's community. Mental health is not soley how a person thinks, feels, or behaves. A person's mental health can affect many aspects of their life including their ability to deal with stress, resilency levels, and their ability to build sustaining relationships. The desire for Polk County is to have a community full of members who have a zest for living, self-confident, a sense of contentment, and the ability to bouce back from adversity. We hope for community with readily available resources available that anyone can access stigma free. 

What information led to the selection of this health issue and related result?

Mental Health was selected because it affects many different areas of an individual’s wellbeing including their physical health. A healthy community encompasses all aspects of health and although much progress has been made in this area, many local leaders agree that much is still to be done. Supporting data of this health priority includes the percentage of adults reporting more than 7 days of poor mental health, dissatisfaction with life, opiate use and suicide rates.   As part of the Healthy North Carolina 2020 focus area for Mental Health, we will be using the objective to "Decrease the average number of poor mental health days among adults in the past 30 days" as an indicator for this priority area.