780 Discussion I
Mental Health Burden in Sedgwick County, Kansas
NU 780 - Population Health
Michael Moates, Ed.D.
Adults in ZIP Code 67203 within Wichita, Kansas experience a sustained mental health burden that affects quality of life, care utilization, and productivity. Multiple synchronized data sources point to a persistent pattern of frequent mentally unhealthy days beyond national context. Kansas Health Institute’s county profile shows that Sedgwick County adults report about five mentally unhealthy days during the past thirty days, signaling a meaningful and continuing need for prevention and early intervention at scale and across settings (Kansas Health Institute, 2025). County Health Rankings identifies poor mental health days as a core quality of life indicator and documents that the 2025 release uses 2022 data for this measure, which provides a stable and comparable trend line across U.S. geographies for planning purposes (County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, 2025a). Kansas Health Matters, which compiles County Health Rankings indicators for Kansas, reports a Sedgwick estimate near five and one half days and notes that the county falls in worse performing comparisons relative to other Kansas and U.S. counties for this indicator, reinforcing the need for a population level response that addresses both access and prevention gaps (Kansas Health Matters, 2025).
Social and structural conditions in the ZIP Code 67203 catchment help explain why mental health burden remains elevated. The AARP Livability Index for ZIP 67203 assigns a Health category score of forty six out of one hundred, which reflects opportunities to strengthen prevention, access, and quality of care for residents with behavioral health needs, including screening, referral pathways, and continuity supports after episode based care (AARP, 2024). These findings are consistent with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention PLACES ArcGIS dashboard for Sedgwick County, which maps model based estimates for neighborhood level mental health indicators and allows targeting by census tract to ensure equitable resource allocation for residents with the greatest need for screening and engagement (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024).
Given this community profile, a system level or community level intervention aligned with the Minnesota Public Health Intervention Wheel is indicated. The Wheel organizes public health nursing actions by level of practice and by named interventions that can be implemented across settings in a coordinated way to improve population outcomes (Minnesota Department of Health, 2025). For Sedgwick County, a feasible approach would include three integrated components across primary care, urgent care, public health, and community partners. First, expand routine screening for depression and anxiety with validated brief tools in primary care and urgent care with standing orders and electronic prompts, then implement automatic referral pathways to local mental health providers and crisis services when scores exceed a clinical threshold, and incorporate closed loop tracking to verify connection to care. Second, organize a community coalition of health systems, federally qualified health centers, and community based organizations to coordinate outreach events and workplace based screening, with navigation supports for uninsured and underinsured residents. Third, deploy social marketing and community outreach to reduce stigma and normalize help seeking, with tailored messaging for neighborhoods that the PLACES dashboard shows to have higher frequent mental distress. These strategies fit within the Wheel’s community and systems practice levels and support measurable outcomes such as a reduction in average mentally unhealthy days and improved time to first behavioral health appointment after a positive screen (County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, 2025b; Minnesota Department of Health, 2025).
For Sedgwick County, I recommend three integrated components.
1. Expand routine screening for depression and anxiety in primary and urgent-care settings using validated tools, standardized workflows, and automatic referrals to local mental health providers or crisis services for positive screens.
2. Establish a countywide behavioral health coalition composed of health systems, federally qualified health centers, and community-based organizations to coordinate outreach events, workplace-based screening, and navigation supports for uninsured residents.
3. Implement social-marketing campaigns designed to normalize help-seeking behaviors, reduce stigma, and target neighborhoods identified through PLACES data as experiencing high levels of frequent mental distress.
These initiatives correspond to the Wheel’s community and systems practice levels and could improve measurable outcomes such as reduced average mentally unhealthy days, shorter time from screening to treatment initiation, and increased continuity of care.
Note: CDC PLACES website notes that the information supplied is not up to date given the current government shutdown.
References:
AARP. (2024). Livability Index: ZIP 67203. AARP Public Policy Institute.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). PLACES: Local data for better health [ArcGIS dashboard]. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
County Health Rankings and Roadmaps. (2025a). Poor mental health days: Measure description and data vintage. University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
County Health Rankings and Roadmaps. (2025b). Sedgwick County, Kansas: Health data. University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
Kansas Health Institute. (2025). Sedgwick County 2025 County Health Rankings in Kansas. Kansas Health Institute.
Kansas Health Matters. (2025). Poor mental health: Average number of days adult residents report their mental health was not good in the past 30 days (Sedgwick County indicator page). Kansas Partnership for Improving Community Health.
Minnesota Department of Health. (2025). The Intervention Wheel: Definitions, practice levels, and applications. Minnesota Department of Health.