Focus Group Findings #1
Important health issues to you/your community?
Lack of access to care
- Need more access to health care places (doctors and dentists)
- No dental care help or coverage from Medicare
- Restrictions on Medications-dosage and how much you can receive during a time limit
- Poor healthcare coverage
- One woman said, “you’re not old enough to qualify for Medicare but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid.”
- Much agreement and complaints about the Medicaid “Gap” in our state and how it is difficult to qualify for assistance and this “middle zone” (as one woman called it)
- Many raised questions of wanting to know why we are not expanding healthcare coverage in our state
- People need more access to mental health care, especially those who don’t have insurance or have high deductibles
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Access to services
- Without minor children you can’t get help or qualify for assistance
- Access to vaccinations; one woman mentioned that they will go to the schools to provide vaccinations (she did not specify who “they” are)
- Concern about services provided in the community and assistance opportunities that are not marketed or promoted well so the community is not aware
- Concern for senior citizen care and programs
- Needs for homeless youth need to be addressed
- Not enough funding for programs like Planned Parenthood and the Health Department
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Specific health issues
- Diabetes
- Pain management [specific issues with pain management is doctors not taking you seriously if on assistance; feelings of discrimination; pain treated differently because patient is using Medicaid or any other assistance]
- Asthma in children
- Children getting “sickness of the skin” in school
- Grandparents raising their grandchildren and the toll it takes on their health
- Obesity: children not as healthy as before or as healthy as they should be
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Issues/problems with local health care
- Feelings of having to advocate for self and Doctors treating you like you “just want drugs” or not really in pain
- Lack of access to pain medication
- In regards to Midtown clinic some felt they have been treated well and expressed gratitude for the services; however, more than one participant referred to the difficulty getting to speak with a doctor over the phone or simple questions answered
- Discussion of Midtown clinic and other clinics for low income and assistance programs, one said they are always “booked” and take too long for immediate health needs.
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Issues/problems with local services
- Concern about bed bugs at the local homeless shelter
- Services for health education and resources not well communicated or promoted and therefore under utilized
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Health habits
- Discussion on concern with E-Cigarettes and the increase of them, many raised the question of not knowing what kind of a risk they are to them second hand
- E-Cigarettes: kids curious about them, kids being targeted; one man said “my children are fascinated by them”
- Underage drinking and prescription pill misuse and abuse
- Substances and drugs easy to access; especially for youth in public schools
- People not coming to get tested for things like STI/D’s, ie: HIV; and concerns with teen pregnancy
- Not enough time to exercise or walk because have to work all the time, no time to get out and take care of self
- Going outside more; kids with technology not going outside
- Not having enough time as a parent to take kids outside or be outside with them to play outside
- Sedentary children: overweight/obesity