How would we experience ''all people in Haywood County living in a compassionate community that supports mental wellness and is free of substance misuse?''

This section features direct quotes and other input from the priority-setting and 'Getting to Strategies' meetings and the 2024 Online Key Informant Survey.  

• Access to affordable health & behavioral health providers
• Substance misuse prevention
• Drug, alcohol, and mental health resources.
• Trauma-informed care
• The community recognizes and builds upon its strengths, including underutilized resources that can serve as"low-hanging fruit."
• More people seeking mental health/substance use treatment
• A decline in rates of suicidal ideation
• Reduction in toxic stress (stress that can lead to other negative outcomes)
• Compassionate care, connection, togetherness.
• People in Haywood County will have increased happiness and overall positive wellbeing (services are a way to help achieve this).  
• Increased positive mental health

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

Healthy Haywood Coalition partners and community members were presented with newly collected and existing data* during a priority-setting meeting in May 2025. Using the Local Rating and Prioritization Worksheet, participants ranked substance use and mental health indicators based on the relevance, impact, and feasibility of addressing each concern.  This resulted in substance use and mental health being selected as the top priority.  Both are continued priorities; these priorities were combined for the 2024-2026 cycle.  *Unless otherwise noted, data was collected from Haywood County adults.  

Priority-setting meeting participants made a decision after reviewing this list of indicators:

• Alcohol:
  • Binge drinking- 17.2% (increase) (WNC Health Network, 2024)
  • Excessive drinking- 21.1% (increase) (WNCHN, 2024)
  • Excessive drinking (NC)- 14.9% (increase) (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, NC State Center for Health Statistics, 2023)
• Tobacco:
  • Currently smoke cigarettes- 17.3% (increase) (WNCHN, 2024)
  • Currently use e-cigarettes- 13.7% (increase) (WNCHN, 2024)
  • Smokeless tobacco- 5.2% (no update) (WNCHN, 2021)
• Other Substance Use:
  • Life negatively impacted by substance use- 58.3% (increase) (WNCHN, 2024)  
  • Past-year opioid use- 18.1% (increase) (WNCHN, 2024)
  • Unintentional overdose rate per 10,000 (emergency department visits for any age group) (county)- 16 (decrease) (North Carolina Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection Tool, 2024)
  • Drug poisoning death rate per 100,000 (NC, any age group)- 42.1 (no update) (NC SCHS)
  • Drug poisoning death rate per 100,000 (county estimate, any age group)- 47.6 (NC SCHS, 2023 )

Participants were also asked to share about:

• What's helping: Medication-Assisted Treatment, Medicaid expansion, reducing stigma campaign, local involvement of the area's Managed Care Organization, variety of community organizations.  
• What's hurting: Mental health challenges increase impact of substance use and decrease access to basic needs, flood aftermath and loss of life/property, poverty, pain, Adverse Childhood Experiences/trauma, generational domestic violence patterns, stigma, lack of long-term rehab facilities, lack of supportive housing, and lack of child/youth programs.  
• Who is most impacted: likely people experiencing poverty, homeless, those with chronic illnesses without treatment, those with increased mental illnesses, those with limited funds and transportation, without insurance, lack of knowledge of the resources available, middle and high school students experiencing increased use.