November 08, 2014
Saturday AM

We all know to brush our teeth, but how is our mental hygiene? The Ketchikan Wellness Coalition (KWC) recently received a grant from the State of Alaska to improve the behavioral health conditions in the Ketchikan area by addressing one of the following: substance abuse, suicide, or mental health. To do this, the KWC will be gathering data, hosting data work groups and action planning groups, all in an effort to come up with practices and policies that could improve the overall behavioral health environment in our area.

Who is involved with this process? The short answer: EVERYONE! For communities to create positive change, it has to come from the inside. In the past, communities would bring in “specialists” to work out problems for them – studies have shown that this just doesn’t work. The community must heal itself and it has all that it needs to do that. Our small town is full of smart, experienced, skilled, influential, and intuitive people. The goal of this grant is to bring them all together to create a culturally relevant plan for tackling the issues of substance abuse, suicide, and mental health in our area.

Why should we do this? Why is this important? Although the data we collect will give us an even better view of what issues our community is facing, the preexisting data gives us a few hints.

• An estimated 37% of alcohol abusers and 53% of other drug abusers also have at least one serious mental illness.
• Of the ten leading causes of death in Alaska, all except Alzheimer’s disease have been associated with substance abuse as a potential contributing cause
  of death.
• When asked the question “Now thinking about your mental health, which includes stress, depression, and problems with your emotions, for how many days during the past 30 days was your mental health not good?” 7.4% of Alaskan’s reported 14+ days, 5% reported 7-13 days, and 18% reported 1-6 days within a 30 day period.

This information is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the behavioral health issues that may be impacting our community.

How do we make this positive change? Data. It speaks objectively about what is really going on in our community. We are collecting disaggregated (anonymous) data from all sources that are willing to share it for this purpose. The KWC is also working with the community at large to conduct surveys and focus groups to gather and learn from the wisdom and experience of our community members. This data will help us determine which factors are having the greatest impact in our community so we can address them accordingly. (The data analysis will be classified as “public information” so future efforts can utilize the findings as well.) With the data in hand we will host planning sessions where all community members, entities, cultural leaders, and the like will be invited to participate. We will create an action plan that lays out exactly how we will implement the programs and practices that combat these issues. The plan will describe what we expect to accomplish, the specific steps we will take to get there, and who is responsible for doing it.

As a community, we CAN tackle any issue that comes our way -- any issue that negatively impacts our children, our productivity, or our happiness. We have the strengths, skill sets, and gumption to do it. To get involved with this grant and help the Ketchikan Wellness Coalition address these issues contact:

Emily Chapel
Prevention Program Coordinator
Ketchikan Wellness Coalition
www.ktnkwc.org
kwcprevention@gmail.com
907.225.9355
Ketchikan, Alaska

Or “like” our Facebook page for updates on wellness related news or topics in our area.

About: "The Ketchikan Wellness Coalition is a grassroots non-profit comprised of individuals, businesses, and organizations working together to establish Ketchikan as a vibrant community that people choose to live in and move to. "

1 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2011). Leading change: A plan for SAMHSA’s roles and actions 2011-2014. SAMHSA.

2 Alaska Bureau of Vital Statistics. http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/VitalStats/Pages/default.aspx

3 Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. (2009). Behavioral Risk Factor Survey (BRFS).

Received November 05, 2014 - Published November 08, 2014

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