Stories: Health Services
Since June 2020, the Community Voices for Health in Monroe County team has hosted small group discussions and personal interviews with more than 150 community members to enhance our understanding of community perspectives on health in Monroe County.
These stories will inform the project as we work with community members and decision-makers to move towards solutions for health in Monroe County.
What matters to my family is to find a medical caregiver. It is difficult to find a new doctor when your doctor retires. It is important to find and access a specialist, or any doctor. Someone who really cares. My family physician retired a year ago, and I spent a year trying to find a new doctor. It also happened to her husband, so they were without physicians for a year. I would like to see more choices and an easier way to find a doctor.
- Small Group Participant
Completely not having access to healthcare is not just low income. The elderly, unhoused, self-employed, small business owners, and college students also have access issues. It is important not to underestimate the number of people who don’t have access.
- Small Group Participant
County Health Rankings indicate 21 percent of Monroe County residents have indicated they have severe housing problems.
About 24,260 people living in Monroe County lacked continuous access to enough food to live a healthy and active lifestyle
Sources: Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority. 2021. Point in Time & Housing Inventory Chart.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Security in the United States .
We need providers to be more open to working with us, especially when people have challenging behaviors that prevent them from sitting in a chair or hopping up on a table, or what have you. We are a bit more lucky in that sense. Our son’s doctors are our doctors. Our doctors have been willing to see our son. If parents don’t have the connections we do with doctors, it can be a lot more difficult. Some doctors won’t work with you.
- Small Group Participant
We have some providers who are incredible. There have been some issues our clients have had with implicit bias. There are clients who haven’t gotten the same suggestions for medical care or medical tests or certain things. I can’t prove this, but my perception is the provider didn’t value the life of that individual as much as someone who could speak to them and tell them about their health issues.
- Small Group Participant
Monroe County continues to be considered to be a Medically Underserved Area and Health Professional Shortage Area, with:
one primary care doctor per 1,710 residents
one dentist per 1,930 residents
one mental health provider per 400 residents.
Source: Monroe County Health Department. 2020. Monroe County Community Health Assessment & Improvement Plan (2015 – 2018).
I was once referred to Indy. It is frustrating to be referred to a doctor an hour away because no one in Monroe County can address my issue. It shouldn’t take 7-8 months to see a doctor. You are more or less on the internet trying to find your own information, because it is so frustrating to always try to find a new doctor when you have been in a community for 40 years and you feel as if you are starting out brand new. The situation may be better for children, but the primary care situation for adults is frustrating.
- Small Group Participant
“I am a Latina woman who grew up within the Latinx/Hispanic community and didn’t realize it until my mid-20s that mental health trauma was not known as a health concern. I remember being depressed but I had to keep quiet because otherwise I would have been labeled as being loca (crazy). Mental health trauma was not discussed in our household and the expectation for me was that I would grow out of that. Depression or suicide is something that is not openly discussed amongst others outside our immediate family members. The Latinx/Hispanic community is less likely to seek mental health professionals.”
- Small Group Participant
I want healthcare providers to not make assumptions. It is not fair to assume that a patient doesn’t know their symptoms, or the diagnosis, or may not have researched the issues on their own. Doctors should not make assumptions about the patient or stereotype, so the doctor doesn’t have to listen to the patient. I have been to a lot of doctors. It can be off-putting, so that you tend to Google, and do your own thing, trying to find your own alternative care, because you don’t want to feel as if what you paid a lot of money for was not really worth it. You are not getting what you are paying for when the doctor brushes you off.
- Small Group Participant
“Having access to health care, specifically mental health services, is of great importance to me. As a mother of a child who has struggled with mental health for several years, I have been witness to lack of pediatric mental health care professionals and services here in Bloomington. Additionally, services that are available are not easily accessed, and can be extraordinarily expensive for families who have private or employee sponsored health insurance policies. No family should be placed in a situation on whether or not mental health care services should be rendered to their child based on their financial situation. Access to mental health services should not bankrupt parents or guardians who are already dealing with the emotional ramifications of raising a child who is struggling.”
- Small Group Participant