Mental Health
2025-2027 Community Health Improvement Plan Priority
Mental well-being is essential to one’s overall health. Many factors contribute to mental health wellness and can affect how one is able to cope with stress, relate to others, and make choices. Community members in Rock County cited challenges accessing needed mental health services in the 2024 Rock County Community Health Assessment (CHA). Barriers were often related to appointment availability, access to mental health services, and the affordability of care. Creating mentally healthy communities can alleviate pressure on the healthcare system and improve population health.
Mental Health Goals
The following three goals were generated from Community Health Assessment data and feedback from content experts. Initiatives under each goal were proposed to community members and partners through two conversations in November. From these conversations, the initiatives with the most support were included as potential CHIP activities. The Health Equity Alliance of Rock County (HEAR) and other organizations will determine initiatives to be included in the 2025-2027 CHIP. The chosen initiatives and a progress dashboard will be added to the website once they are available.
Mentally Healthy Communities
The environments and community conditions where people live, work, learn, and play have a large influence on the stressors people experience and can contribute to the development of mental and emotional disorders. By integrating mental well-being into the places where people frequently spend their time, communities can address the root causes and reduce the impacts of mental health challenges.
Affordable Mental Health Services
The need for mental health services has been on the rise nationally. Rock County is not immune to this trend as seen throughout the 2024 CHA methods citing affordability as a barrier. While policies around insurance coverage are typically determined at the state or national level, this goal focuses on community-based strategies that can influence access to affordable mental health services.
Mental Health Workforce Development
Attracting and retaining an adequate mental health workforce is a challenge due to varying factors. Low reimbursement rates and a high demand for mental health services can result in excessive caseloads. The stress and emotional toll of the work can lead to burnout and high turnover rates. Addressing gaps in the workforce and providing alternate routes of care can help improve the mental health workforce.
Mental Health Initiatives Across the County
Alignment to State and National Initiatives
This crosswalk serves as a guide for mental health initiatives being addressed at the local, state, and national levels. The table is not an all-inclusive list of all initiatives. Rather, the crosswalk is a visual to help represent the alignment of the Rock County CHIP, Wisconsin’s State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP), and Healthy People 2030, the national objectives to improving health and well-being.
For more information on mental health initiatives, contact HEARCoordinator@co.rock.wi.us.