BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – A number of Brown County Agencies are coming together to ensure residents are living healthy — and to redefine what that term means.
Brown County ranks 31st out of 72nd in the state when it comes to overall Health Outcomes.
On Wednesday, everyone gathered at the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Brown County agreed that that’s not good enough.
The goal is for community partners to create real change, which will help ensure everyone’s health and well-being.
A major focus at the event was defining what exactly “health” and “well-being” mean.
For Devon Christianson, Director of the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Brown County, it’s much more than seeing how many candles you can fit on the birthday cake.
“We’re not looking to have people just live longer in a nursing home,” she explains.
Rather, the focus is on quality of life.
That popular buzz-word really encompasses a variety of health factors, including physical, mental, and social.
In fact, the Determinants of Health only focus twenty-percent on clinical care, according to the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
The other eighty-percent is made up of social and economic factors, physical environment, and health behaviors.
In terms of the physical environment, community partners want to see the counties older population and disabled population have the resources necessary to get outside and move around.
“We would love to see accessible bikes come to this community,” says Christianson. “Let’s have people with disabilities out on the trails.”
From her perspective, quality of life locally should ensure that people have the tools necessary to help themselves.
“We’re looking for them to love where they are in their community for as long as possible,” she explains. “And we all have a part in doing that.”
Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach was on-hand and echoed many of the same sentiments.
He pointed towards plowing of the Fox River Trail in the winter months as an encouraging sign that the county is getting serious about allocating time and resources to ensure that residents can live healthy year round.
Betsy Abramson, Executive Director with the Wisconsin Institute for Healthy Aging, is an expert on what goes into living a well-rounded lifestyle, no matter anyone’s age.
She says it’s no secret what goes into living well.
“There’s no secret sauce to that, we know what it is,” explains Abramson. “It’s exercise, it’s nutrition, it’s purposefulness, it’s connection.”
And as more people practice healthy living into their advanced years, she hopes the stigma surrounding old age starts to deteriorate.
“We also need models of healthy aging,” says Abramson. “Research shows that a positive view of aging [helps people] live, on average, seven-and-a-half years longer.”
