2024-2026 CHNA Priority Findings
Priority Findings Quick View
The CHNA is the first step in a cycle of health assessment and improvement. These priority findings represent major obstacles to healthy choices and outcomes for Mesa County residents and key opportunities for collaborative community intervention.
Many households in Mesa County struggle to reach economic stability.
Mesa County continues to be a childcare desert, but access is increasing.
Housing insecurity significantly burdens Mesa County residents.
Mesa County has a shortage of behavioral health providers.
Mesa County residents frequently use the emergency department for visits that could be completed with primary care doctors at lower cost and more effective whole health care.
Alcohol consumption is common among youth and adults, and plays a role in serious health outcomes.
Rates of suicide ideation, attempt, and death in Mesa County are worrisome.
Youth relationships with their families and peers are primary risk or protective factors in substance use and mental health.
Priority Findings Expanded
Economic Stability
Many household types in Mesa County struggle to reach economic stability. 
- Households with a single adult in Mesa County have a median household income notably below economic stability.
- The median household income for female single parents is less than half of what’s required for economic stability for a mother with a preschooler and school-age child.
- Since Hispanic households earn less than non-Hispanic households in many metrics, economic stability is likely even further out of reach for Hispanic female single adults.
- A female single parent with two children earning the median household income for her group may be eligible for nearly $27,000 of benefits, closing the gap to economic stability from $40,513 to $13,700
Sources: Colorado Law and Policy Center, Census American Community Survey Tables, Enrollment specialists from county benefit agencies, Colorado Self-Sufficiency Standard
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY STANDARD FOR DIFFERENT HOUSEHOLD TYPES (2022)
Sources: Census American Community Survey Tables DP03, S1101, B19215, S1903, 2022 and the Self Sufficiency Standard for Colorado, 2022
Childcare Desert
Mesa County continues to be a childcare desert, but access is increasing.
- Currently, there are 3.5 children under age five for every licensed childcare slot in Mesa County.
- In the past three years, several large employers have opened childcare centers that offset slots lost during COVID and have added supply in key high-demand areas.
- When the Clifton Campus childcare center opens, adding 206 slots, the Clifton zip code will no longer be classified as a child care desert - a key success in providing infrastructure and support to young families in the area.
- 1,936 preschool slots across 71 providers are partially funded by Universal Pre-K, increasing access to care by reducing cost to families.
Sources: Census American Community Survey Tables, Colorado Department of Early Childhood
CHILDCARE DESERT BY ZIP CODE, MESA COUNTY, 2024
Housing Insecurity
Housing insecurity significantly burdens Mesa County residents.
- Between 2015 and 2022 in Mesa County, starter home prices increased by 96%, rental costs increased by 58% , and
- In 2021, 25% of households who had moved in the last five years did not wish to move but had to.
- In the 2023-2024 school year, Mesa County Valley School District 51 identified 754 students in 420 families experiencing housing instability. 60% are “doubled up,” which often results in frequent moves.
Sources: Census ACS Tables, Grand Junction Housing Assessment, Mesa County Valley School District 51
Percent Increase since 2015 of Housing Costs and Median Income, Mesa County
Sources: Zillow, Cost of Housing Trends & Census American Community Survey Table DP03
Mesa County has a shortage of behavioral health providers.
- In 2022, just 13% of Mesa County residents agreed that Mesa County provides adequate support for mental health and substance use providers.
- In 2023, 19.1% of Mesa County residents had spoken to a mental health or substance use provider in the past year. 12.9% indicated they needed a visit but could not get it.
- The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment ranks every census tract in Mesa County in the top 30% of mental health and substance use provider shortages across the state.
- The Health Resources and Services Administration indicates a need for eight additional full time psychiatrists, along with other complementary providers, to meet the demand for services on the Western Slope.
Sources: Health Resources and Services Administration, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, 2022 Tell Us Community Survey, 2023 CHAS Survey
Access to Behavioral HealthCare
Mesa County residents who had spoken to a mental health or substance use provider in the past year
Mesa County residents who indicted they needed a mental health visit but could not get it.
Sources: 2023 CHAS Survey
Emergency Department Visits
Mesa County residents use the emergency department for visits that could be addressed at less cost and more effective whole health care with primary care doctors.
- In an analysis of emergency department visits by Monument Health patients, approximately 40% of visits were for non-emergency diagnoses such as headache and abdominal pain.
- An additional 5% of visits were for emergency diagnoses that could have been prevented by seeking a lower level of care sooner, such as back pain.
- Approximately 35% of visits were for non-preventable emergency care.
Source: Monument Health Data Request
Top 10 Primary Health Concerns, Emergency Department, Mesa County (2023)
Alcohol Consumption
Alcohol consumption is common among youth and adults, and plays a role in serious health outcomes.
- Overall alcohol use in teens decreased from 28% in 2019 to 21% in 2021. However, binge drinking rates remaining at 13%.
- One in ten Mesa County adults is a heavy drinker, and one in six is a current binge drinker. Between 2019 and 2022, binge drinking rates remained steady, and heavy drinking increased.
- Since 2021, between one-third and one-half of suicide deaths and one-third of suicide-related hospital visits have involved alcohol intoxication.
- Since 2016, teen car crashes where the driver was impaired have doubled, from 10 in 2016 to 20 in 2022. Between one-third and one-half of these impaired crashes resulted in an injury, and three resulted in a death.
Source: National Syndromic Surveillance Program, Healthy Kids Colorado Survey 2021, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey 2020-2022
Students who binge drank in the past 30 days
Students who had their first drink (more than a few sips) before the age of 13
Source: Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Healthy Kids Colorado Survey 2021
Suicide
Rates of suicide ideation, attempt, and death in Mesa County are worrisome.
- From 2020 to 2022, Mesa County’s suicide death rate was 32.1 per 100,000 residents, compared to 22.6 for Colorado.
- Suicide is the seventh leading cause of death overall, and second leading cause of death for people under the age of 65.
- Youth and young adults ages 10 to 24 have the highest rates for emergency department visits for suicidal ideation and attempt. The rate for girls and young women is more than 1.5 times higher than boys and young men, though visits for working age adults age 25 to 64 are more evenly split between men and women.
- Half of Mesa County adults report having a firearm in their home, which increases risk of suicide death by more than 3 times due to increased access to lethal means. Differences in suicide rates between states are better explained by levels of household gun ownership than by mental health problems, suicidal ideation, or suicide attempts.
Sources: Census American Community Survey Tables, Colorado Vital Statistics Death Dataset, National Syndromic Surveillance System, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2020-2022, Miller: Suicide Mortatilty in the U.S.
RATES OF SUICIDE IDEATIONS AND ATTEMPTS
Emergency Department Visits, Rates per 100,000 residents per year within Age Groups
Source: National Syndromic Surveillance System
Youth Protective Factors
Youth relationships with their families and peers are primary risk or protective factors in substance use and mental health.
Parent Support
- 54% percent of youth indicated they can definitely ask their parents for help with a serious problem, 28% said usually, and 18% said not often or never.
- Youth who reported they could definitely ask for help are one-third as likely to report intense mental health challenges as those who said they could not.
- Youth who reported they could definitely ask for help reported significantly less high risk substance use than youth who said they could not.
Belonging at School
- 58% of youth agreed or strongly agreed to feeling a sense of belonging at school. 28% said not sure, and 14% disagreed or strongly disagreed.
- 72% of youth who did not feel a sense of belonging at school reported serious mental health challenges, compared to 31% who said they did feel a sense of belonging.
- 23% of youth who did not feel a sense of belonging at school reported high risk substance compared to 15% who said they did not feel a sense of belonging.
Source: Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Healthy Kids Colorado Survey 2021
Students who reported struggling with their mental health according to whether they could ask their parents for help
Source: Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Healthy Kids Colorado Survey 2021
References
1.
Mesa County Public Health, Tell Us Community Survey, 2022
2.
Mesa County, Mesa County Master Plan Survey, Data Request, 2022
3.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), Data Request, 2015-2022
4.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, Data Request, 2021
5.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Healthy Kids Colorado Survey Dashboard, 2015-2022
6.
Colorado Center for Law and Policy & University of Washington School of Social Work, The Self Sufficiency Standard for Colorado 2022, November 2022
7.
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, Table: DP03, SELECTED ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS 2022
8.
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, Table: S1101, HOUSEHOLDS AND FAMILIES 2022
9.
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, Table: B19215, MEDIAN NONFAMILY HOUSEHOLD INCOME 2022
10.
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, Table: S1903, MEDIAN INCOME IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS 2022
11.
Mesa County Partnership for Children and Families, Universal Preschool Data, Personal Communication, February 2023
12.
Mesa County Workforce Center, Colorado Child Care Assistance Program for Families Data, Personal Communication, March 2023
13.
Mesa County Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Benefit Data, Personal Communication, February 2023
14.
Mesa County Department of Human Services, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Data, Personal Communication, March 2023
15.
Colorado Department of Human Services, Colorado’s Low-income Energy Assistance Program (LEAP) sees record number of applications for 2022 heating season, December 2022
16.
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, Table: S0101, AGE AND SEX 2013 - 2022
17.
Colorado Department of Early Childhood, Colorado Licensed Child Care Facilities Report, 2023
18.
Partnership for Children and Families, Universal Pre-K Slot Data, Data Request, 2024
19.
Zillow, Housing Data, 2015-2023
20.
City of Grand Junction, Grand Valley Housing Needs Assessment, July 2021
21.
Mesa County Valley School District, Margery Brennan, Personal Communication, April 2024
22.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Professional Shortage Areas Data Explorer, Accessed April 2024
23.
CDPHE Health Access Branch, Behavioral Health Shortage Map, Accessed April 2024
24.
Colorado Health Institute, Colorado Health Access Survey - Region 19, Data Request, 2023
25.
Monument Health, 2023 Patient Data, Data Request, March 2024
26.
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Syndromic Surveillance Program, Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics, 2021- 2023
27.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Colorado Health Information Dataset - Death Statistics, 2000-2022
28.
Miller M, et al. Suicide mortality in the United States: the importance of attending to method in understanding population-level disparities in the burden of suicide. Annu Rev Public Health. 2012
29.
Regional Transportation Planning Office, Mesa County Safety Action Plan, 2024