Two surveys were conducted for this study. One was a random survey of households in the New River Valley. It was a combination of a telephone survey and a door-to-door survey. Door-to-door surveys were conducted in homes that do not have telephones to ensure that this population was not underrepresented. it asked respondents questions concerning life in their households specifically and in their community.
Of the questions that asked people directly about the problems in their household, health care issues were cited most often as major problems. Lack of medical insurance is a problem for over a third of the region's households. Almost a third also have difficulty affording medical services and/or prescription medications. The other areas that occurred most frequently as problems are difficulty with stress, anxiety, and/or depression, and difficulty finding work. Community concerns that were most prominent are under aged drinking, unemployment, employment for the disabled, alcoholism, and underemployment.
The second survey was a mailout survey of the human service providers in the region. Service providers related information about their services, their community concerns and the problems that exist in their client's households. Similar to the general population, the needs most often cited in their client's households center on medical and employment issues. Anxiety, stress, and depression is another problem that ranks high among clients. Basic needs, such as housing and food, are problems for clients, according to the service providers.
This study is in no way a prioritization of services or problems in the field of human services. Not all areas of human services were able to be addressed in this study. In addition, this study does not take into account the value systems of the region. Some problems may occur relatively infrequently but are more severe and socially unacceptable than others that occur more frequently. These are policy decisions that must be made by decision makers. This study is a tool for those decision makers to use in that difficult process.
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