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Washington County selects poverty, tobacco use and preventive care as community health priorities
Summary
A new county community health assessment finds Washington County has higher rates of certain chronic diseases and smoking; the health department selected economic stability (poverty), tobacco/e‑cigarette use, and preventive services for chronic disease as priority areas and will submit an improvement plan to the State by June 30.
Staff member (S12) presented a community health assessment compiled over about a year using stakeholder and public surveys and county data. The assessment shows Washington County is similar to other New York counties on population health but worse than New York on social and economic factors; S12 said the county is ‘‘about the same as other counties in New York’’ for well‑being and better than the national average on that measure.
Key findings cited by S12 included a demographic profile with roughly 90.9% of residents identifying as white non‑Hispanic, approximately 29,000 housing units with a median owner value near $189,000, and more than one in five residents aged 65 or older. S12 reported 12% of households in poverty and an ALICE (asset‑limited, income‑constrained, employed) rate of about 32% (roughly 10,530 households), and said about 27% of residents receive Medicaid.
On health indicators, S12 said the county has higher than benchmark rates of obesity, diabetes and certain cancers, and cited elevated lung and bronchus cancer and colorectal cancer rates compared with Upstate New York benchmarks. S12 also noted behavioral‑health concerns: frequent mental distress and an age‑adjusted suicide rate higher than New York State benchmarks. The assessment identified Lyme disease and anaplasmosis as local vector concerns and said roughly 250 animals were tested for rabies from 2020–2024 with 20 positives, mostly wild animals.
As required by county regulations, staff selected three priority domains for a community health improvement plan: economic stability (with a focus on poverty/ALICE), social and community context (targeting tobacco and e‑cigarette use), and health care access/quality (focusing on preventive services for chronic disease). The county plans to develop evidence‑based interventions and submit the improvement plan to the State Department of Health by June 30. S12 said the full 70‑page assessment will be posted on the county website and is available in hard copy on request.
