Specialized health services abundant in Valley. Problem is, many don't know about them, report finds - lehighvalleylive.com

Do you know about any of these resources offered in the Lehigh Valley?

• Breast and cervical cancer prevention and treatment program
• Oncology clinical trials, nutritional assessment and counseling, and genetic risk assessment and counseling
• Tobacco cessation program and tobacco cessation PA free quit-line

If you don’t, don’t worry, apparently you’ve got a lot of company. The above three are just some of the resources that significant percentages of people in the Lehigh and Northampton counties don’t know exist locally. This is the finding of a new report issued by Lehigh Valley Health Network.

The health network’s 2019 Community Health Needs Assessment Health Profile at Lehigh and Northampton Counties is part of the report that covers communities in its service area, which extends beyond the Lehigh Valley.

According to the report, out of 2,515 respondents, only 72% were aware of cancer treatment options (i.e. chemotherapy); only 62% were aware of hospice services; 55% were aware of support groups; 51% were aware of cancer clinical trials; 45% were aware of the pain management clinic; and there are many other resources with even less of a knowledge base such as breast pumping classes, financial counseling, nutritional counseling, pastoral services and more.

“Rates of morbidity, mortality and emergency hospitalizations can be reduced if community residents access services such as health screenings, routine tests and vaccinations,” the report said.

Unfortunately, however, nobody knows about screenings, either.

The report found 11.3% of 1,127 respondents did not get a cancer screening because they did not know they needed one. Less than 2% reported other factors provided barriers such as lack of provider, transportation, access to a screening, etc.

But cancer patients aren’t the only group with a lack of knowledge about resources. According to the report, the need for additional mental health services was referenced multiple times in focus groups and interviews on social isolation. “Participants identify that there are fewer providers for mental health care, and they do not know where to refer people for mental health counseling,” the report says.

But to the contrary, there is a higher rate of mental health care providers to the general population than there are primary care physicians. There is a rate of 167.1 mental health care providers per 100,000 people, whereas there are only 116.26 primary care physicians per 100,000 people.

More than 20% of respondents reported that they were unaware of the psychosocial counseling services provided in the Lehigh and Northampton counties. There are also oncology counseling services, various support groups, pastoral care, grief support, and more that large numbers of respondents didn’t know about.

So, the big question comes down to: Why aren’t more people aware of the services the Lehigh County offers? Do we need to do a better job promoting them? How would one even go about finding more information on the various resources available?

The Fair Health Consumer website provides links to reliable sources on available resources in every state.

The list of resources isn’t quite as extensive as that offered in the report, but the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s site, one of the sources, does provide plenty of information about lead poisoning, opioid data, quitting tobacco, antibiotic awareness, HIV resources, and more.

The report concludes that health programs in the Lehigh Valley need to get better about advertising their resources and residents need to get better about researching it.

Here are some of the other services available in the region that residents seemingly don’t know exist:

• Help with medical assistance/disability
• Help selecting insurance plans
• Furniture assistance (for families in crisis after fires, floods, hurricanes, etc.)
• Oncology financial coordinators, social workers and counseling services
• Places to stay
• Healthy women program
• Public transportation
• Pastoral care/religious support
• Cancer rehabilitation
• Nurse navigators by disease site and bilingual nurse navigators
• Multidisciplinary consultation
• Reiki manual therapy (free to outpatients receiving cancer treatment or follow-up care)
• Palliative care
• Hospice
• Grief support
• Screening services
• Mobile mammography coach
• Plastic surgery (i.e. reconstructive from disease treatment)
• Educational programs

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