WATSONVILLE >> A recent nationwide health report has Santa Cruz County faring relatively well, but local health care leaders say a deeper dive into the data tells a different story.

National findings from the 2024 Health Rankings and Roadmaps report show that health outcomes, consisting of quantitative data from 2021 and 2022 such as mortality and birthing rates, in Santa Cruz are about the same as the average county in the state and better than average compared to counties across the country.

Similarly, Santa Cruz is about average statewide and above average nationally when it comes to health outcomes, typically represented by characteristics or attributes of a community such as educational offerings or the status of the health care system.

Compared to other state and national averages, high performing areas in the county include access to exercise opportunities, low teen birth rates, high flu vaccinations, and ratios of clinical care providers to patients.

Conversely, areas of concern include elevated adult smoking rates, unemployment, income inequality and severe housing problems.

Your ZIP code

But at a media event held Wednesday at the Pajaro Unified School District’s Family Engagement and Wellness Center in Watsonville, representatives from several county nonprofits and health care agencies urged the public to avoid a status quo mindset that might be tempting given the reports broadly positive findings. The reality is, they said, that there remains serious disparities when it comes to the health and well being of certain communities that must be addressed.

Erica Padilla Chavez, CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank, said disaggregating and deeply analyzing the data is “where we find the roadmap for our work.”

“We realize that seniors, households with children, students, Latinos, African Americans and other groups are not faring as well. They’re disproportionately impacted at higher levels of food insecurity,” said Padilla Chavez.

Watsonville Hospital CEO Steven Grey has taken a similar approach and he said it has revealed an unsettling reality.

“When we do dig deeper, we see that these data give us one more piece of evidence that the most important number that dictates your health is not your BMI; it’s not your cholesterol levels; it’s not your calorie count,” said Grey. “The most important number that dictates your overall health outcome is your ZIP code or even more specifically your street address.”

As an example, Grey said while the overall population without health insurance in the county is at 8%, when broken down by region, South County rockets up to 20.5% while Mid County is at 5% and North County rests at 7%. The trend holds when it comes to child poverty and health conditions such as diabetes — South County regions sit at least a few points above their neighbors and the disparity is masked by a lower average overall, explained Grey.

“These are not social determinants of health,” added Grey. “Health disparities in our community and beyond are a result of political choices we’ve made over generations and these results that we’re getting are exactly the results the systems were designed to get.”

Working together

The most effective way to buck the trend? Speakers said that coordination and collaboration among local nonprofits and governments is critical as evidenced by the emergency response to COVID-19 and the extensive flooding in early 2023.

In the early months of the pandemic, a collective of nonprofits, public agencies and individuals formed the South County Triage Group, in part, to streamline services that support communities disproportionately impacted by the virus. Jennifer Herrera, assistant director of the county’s Health Services Agency, said the power-sharing group dynamic helped implement “one of the strongest vaccine rollouts in the state.”

The group, led by Pajaro Valley Prevention and Student Assistance, has since grown to 55 members including the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, Cabrillo College and Salud Para La Gente.

The local leaders also plan to pull on legislative levers at the state and federal level. Padilla Chavez said she was encouraged by state Assembly Bill 513, introduced by Assemblymember Freddie Rodriguez and Speaker Robert Rivas, whose district includes the Pajaro and Salians valleys.

The bill, still moving through the committee process, would let the California Individual Assistance Act create a grant program that could give financial assistance to local agencies, community-based organizations and individuals for costs related to disaster responses. Bill proponents say it would support those who get overlooked by other state and federal disaster reimbursement programs.

Jasmine Nájera, CEO of the Pajaro Valley Prevention and Student Assistance and a clinical social worker, was invited to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address earlier this month as an honored guest of Rep. Jimmy Panetta. Nájera said she felt it was an important acknowledgment of the youth mental health crisis across the county and nation, as well as the work done by community-based organizations.

“The fact that I … as a licensed clinician was invited to represent our organization in youth behavioral health and what we’re doing and have that conversation at that level was pretty mind blowing to me,” said Nájera. “I think it’s very significant that he chose a nonprofit, out of any other space that he could have chosen, and specifically for youth behavioral health.”

Asked by Panetta if she had a magic wand to enact beneficial policies, Nájera said free mental health care for all children and free education for those wanting to work in the behavioral health profession would be her top choices.

“The key really is: How do we actually see evidence of us doing a good job?” said Nájera. “When we see more leadership and young folks and family members speaking up and being engaged, then that’s when we’ll have one of those indicators.”

To see the report, visit countyhealthrankings.org.