Action Plan to Reverse Poor Health Conditions
Affecting Washington County and the Passamaquoddy Tribe
Just over a year ago Maine newspapers
reported the results of a study that stunned the
State. From 1983 to 1999, as most Americans
were living longer, life expectancy among
women in Washington County actually
grew shorter. Even more shocking is the
fact that, even with this decline, women
in Washington County still live 30 years
longer than tribal members living on the
Passamaquoddy reservations. According to
the tribal government, their members’ average
life expectancy is 48 years. This is one-third
lower than the U.S. average life expectancy.
After the study was released, people from
Washington County and the Passamaquoddy
communities began meeting to develop a
plan to reverse these distressing findings.
Representative Donald Soctomah
(Passamaquoddy Tribe) introduced legislation
in the 2009 session (LD 1228), calling for
an action plan to address this crisis. His bill
had strong bipartisan support and passed
as emergency legislation. This means that
the work can begin immediately. MAIN
and MEJP both testified in support of this
legislation.
These stark facts from the eastern most corner
of Maine are a sign of a much larger story.
Washington County has the State’s highest
poverty rate. Poverty and poor health status
often go hand in hand. Washington County
has:
- The highest percentage of adults and children over age five with a
disability in the State;
- The highest overall number of cancer cases and the highest death rate from
cancer;
- The highest high blood pressure rates;
- The highest cardiovascular disease death rate;
- Higher than the state average for diabetes and asthma; and
- Fewer adults who saw a dentist in the last two years than anywhere else in the State.
This area of Maine suffers from a harsh
combination of factors - deep poverty, chronic
illness, a weak economy, and inadequate
health care resources. Put together, they are
largely responsible for the alarming statistics
and despair that Rep. Soctomah’s legislation
wants to reverse.
The Department of Health and Human
Services, Maine Center for Disease Control
and Prevention’s Office of Minority Health,
and a local health organization will work with
Passamaquoddy health directors and others in
Washington County to develop the action
plan. The group will report its findings to the
Legislature’s Health and Human Services
Committee in January 2010. The Committee
can then introduce legislation necessary to put
into action any parts of the report.
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