Dubuque County residents encouraged to fill out survey to help assess brain health needs

DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG) - A Dubuque organization is partnering with county officials to collect data on the brain health needs of the community.

The Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque (CFGD), in partnership with Dubuque County government, has created a survey to identify perceptions on services, stigmas, and barriers when it comes to brain health in the county.

Peter Supple, the foundation’s director of non-profits, explained the foundation had done a similar survey six years ago where the county was able to make changes thanks to what came out of it. Those changes included expanding Hillcrest Family Services’ mobile crisis unit and creating a children’s brain health group.

Supple mentioned the CFGD believes it is time to do another assessment study since, according to him, a lot has changed when it comes to brain health in six years, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The numbers are telling us that stress, anxiety, depression, suicide is almost at an all time high right now because of the pandemic and that is across the board, from teenagers to young adults, seniors,” he added. “So we hope to get their input on what they think the main barriers are, whether it is stigma, accessibility, insurance. We want to take that back to out county officials and brain health leadership and hopefully we can start to remove some of those barriers.”

Dubuque County residents 18 years and older can fill out the survey here. Officials will accept responses until Friday, March 25. The survey is available both in English and Spanish. Supple said all input will be confidential.

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