Inside the new ThedaCare Medical Center-Oshkosh, Jan. 8, 2026. PC: Fox 11 Online
FOX VALLEY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Calumet, Outagamie and Winnebago counties shared their first Unified Health Report Wednesday.
It’s part of the new Tri-County Community Health Improvement Coalition.
“The best way for us to understand what people need, so that we can move policies and systems and our own choices and behaviors and organizational strategy, and align that so we can move towards collective impact, is for all of us to look at the same information in the same way at the same time,” said Beth Clay, vice president for community impact at United Way Fox Cities. The non-profit acts as a backbone for the coalition, supporting its efforts.
In years past, each county and health organization had done its own health report. That led to dozens of duplicate plans and action items, which hurt the efficiency of each group. With the Unified Health Report, organizations across the Fox Valley now have the same information and can plan together.
Tracey Ratzburg with ThedaCare said it drops that need for multiple groups to analyze data separately.
“It has created common understanding of our greatest needs and helps us to align the initiative, so we’re going to have a greater potential for impact overall,” she explained.
Those great needs include mental health struggles. The report says one in three children don’t feel a sense of belonging in school, and less than half of the adults in the Tri-County area feel a strong sense of belonging in the community.
“We do know that the mental health crisis continues,” said David DeGrood, co-author of the report and an epidemiologist with Outagamie County Public Health. “It grew worse during the pandemic. Even though some of the waitlists have gone down for mental health care providers, there are still waitlists. There’s still a lot of languishing. So, we really do need to address the factors that are contributing to the mental health crisis.”
ThedaCare has already begun work on “supporting youth nurturing connection” — or SYNC — at Appleton East. It’s working alongside the coalition to send surveys to kids and adults about social media use in relation to mental health.
“Digital devices can also lead to disconnection from peers, family and community,” Ratzburg explained. “Our SYNC is a community movement that supports youth and nurtures connection to strengthen mental health and support young people thriving.”
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