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Respond to Survey, Help Shape our Community

[Posted in the Homer News 12.3.15]

By Kyra Wagner

What is it you love about your community? What are your impressions of what needs improvement? These might be the kind of questions we talk about around the table over coffee or a meal, maybe what we gripe about during break. Have you ever had conversations where you seemed to solve all the world’s problems? If only someone would bother to ask you? If only you were king for a day?

Seriously, how would someone ask you about what you think? We don’t exactly have community forums where people can just speak their mind. Do we?

I got involved with MAPP because I love the idea of identifying the needs of a community, everyone deciding to take on an issue, and then the whole community working toward a goal together. That is the kind of collaboration that will actually make a difference. That is the kind of social change that gets me out of the armchair and into action. Everyone is on board, everyone can do something in their own little way. This is how we shift an entire community in a positive direction.

I get excited just thinking about it.

But in order to do that you need to know what people think. You need to know what the issues are that everyone will be willing to address together. This is totally different than the old way of doing things where a few people say what they think is wrong, create a program to solve it and try and get everyone else’s buy-in.

Believe me, that old way is easier.

The reason this new way of collaborating is more difficult is that you have to know what people think before you start. You have to have everyone’s buy-in first. Never assume you have the answers, be open to hear what comes up.

When looking for issues that affect our community’s health, one could just look at statistics. Hospital admissions, income levels, degree level. That is important too, but that doesn’t tell you what people think. It is what we perceive as a problem that will worry us. It’s what we perceive as the solution that will motivate us.

Every three years MAPP conducts a community-wide survey. Data is collected including population statistics, but that only tells part of the story. Knowing that in 2010 the average median age on the Southern Kenai Peninsula was 41.1 years does little to help us identify bigger issues. That is why MAPP conducts a perceptions survey.

You are being asked what you think. And with no more questions than fit on one piece of paper.

Why do you choose to live here? What are the strengths of our community? We need to acknowledge this first so we know what we have to work with, what we should hold on to, what we need to value and maintain. This is a community-wide discussion, so say what you truly believe, make sure your thoughts are represented.

What needs to be improved? What stresses you out here? The feedback from the surveys from previous years have always been telling. One of the most interesting questions to me is the difference in people’s perceptions of what are community problems versus what are their own family problems.

When asked to rank the issues most affecting themselves and their families, the top response was “Economic Costs,” but when asked to rank the issues most affecting “the community,” the top response was “Substance Abuse.” If you are a real fact geek, you can see all the answers compiled into graphs and charts and lists on http://MAPPofSKP.net/ under “Reports.”

Since then our community looked at all the data as well as the community perceptions and identified family issues as the topic everyone could work on together as a community.  If your family is strong and resilient, it can deal with economic problems better, avoid turning to substances for escape. It is all connected.

Since that round of data collection different coalitions and groups have formed around improving family wellbeing.  Groups that were already going have been strengthened by their ability to tell funders that they are part of a community movement, everyone working in different ways on a collectively on a problem.

Now it’s time for another check in.  How have your perceptions changed?  What do you think we should do more of?  Less of?

You can find these surveys all over town, in coffee shops and waiting rooms, the library and maybe even at your workplace. You can fill out a paper survey, you scan a QR code to get the survey online, you can go to the MAPP website for the online link, or you can go directly to the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Perceptions_mappwebsite

Tell us what you think.  Be king for a day.

Kyra Wagner is the coordinator of Sustainable Homer and a member of the MAPP steering committee.

Greatest Strengths & Needs?

What do YOU think are our greatest community strengths and needs?

Please share your thoughts in this survey link by Friday, December 18th.

Every three years, MAPP takes a pulse of the community’s health perceptions to inform existing and new community efforts. Please take a few minutes to tell us what’s important to you and help create the place we most want to live. Thank you!

 

 

Self-care key factor in community health

[Posted in Homer News on November 5th, 2015]

By Kyra Wagner

When I recently got in touch with Dave Branding, CEO of South Peninsula Behavioral Health Services (the Center), I was surprised to hear he had watched the sunrise from the harbor. Turns out, Dave loves boats and harbors here in Alaska. Having been here almost four years, I’m guessing that his love of boats and harbors has grown from his appreciation for how they get him closer to fish. Dave is one of the most dedicated fishermen I know.

But running an organization as big as the Center has got to come with some stress, so I am glad that our area can offer Dave the moments for personal connection to what feeds him. Personal self-care is vital for health and resiliency.

When Dave originally moved up the ladder in the behavioral health field, his goal was to work with more than just one person at a time. Now instead of directly working on the emotional well-being of clients, he is more concerned with the well-being of an entire workforce who serve those clients. In these tight economic times statewide, he has mentioned his struggle with the conflict of knowing that staff needs to take time and care of themselves on one hand and while being productive enough to sustain the organization and its services to the community on the other.

This is a common struggle. When do we cross over from enthusiastic encouragement to peer pressure and toxic stress? Can you identify it in your life? Is it at work or at home? If you can identify it when someone does it to you, can you identify it when you do it to someone else? Is it a habit or is it directly tied to how hard the day has been?

This is where self-care is of utmost importance.  How can we be balanced and supportive of others if we aren’t ourselves? This chain reaction of personal health affects our relationships to the people around us, our work environments, our community as a whole. No amount of self-care is too small or insignificant. Every flight attendant will tell you: put on your own oxygen mask before helping others.

Knowing what feeds you and prioritizing it in your life is a huge part of that. Only then can you calmly step back and clearly see in others what they need and support them in that. For Dave, going fishing is the way he relaxes and stays centered.

At the Center, everyone is constantly connecting the concept of individual health to community health.  Homer is known state-wide as a caring community. Clients of the Center often receive services at home or learn skills in the community rather than being shuttered up in some facility. Seeing our connection to the bigger picture, to the community at large, is part of that individual health.

Really, it’s all connected. Individual health leads to better interpersonal relationships which creates better workplace and community environments. A more supportive community is also one that feeds the individual and families. It all comes around.

So where is the weakest link in your life? What is most in need of strengthening?

During the last MAPP community health needs assessment, the concept of toxic stress and ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) was identified as a root cause of a huge number of health issues. It is quantifiable. It is not just soft talk about how we should be all warm and fuzzy to ourselves and each other. It is concretely measurable. Toxic stress affects your brain, your body, your relationships.

The good news is that the cycle can be broken. At the Center, Dave was proud to tell me about Parenting with Love and Limits, a new program starting this week focused on supporting families through a combination of education and therapy. This program is evidence-based, meaning that SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) has already proven that it works. Since so much of our emotional wellness is connected to all these other relationships, it is not surprising that a program that includes the whole family instead of just the individual is going to be more effective.

The connections between our individual, family and community health are endless, but easy to forget as we go through our day.  As a gentle reminder, thousands of Homerites will be receiving a packet in the mail with details about connecting on these different levels and what that looks like. Packed with information, images and stories, this packet won’t ask you to donate, join or jump onto any bandwagon.

It simply is asking you to think about the importance of connection.

To yourself.

To others.

To the community.

May we all be healthy.

Kyra Wagner is the coordinator of Sustainable Homer and a member of the MAPP steering committee.