Quality of Life Indicators
Health & Wellness
Health and Wellness. Healthy community and self-sufficient families for a healthy economy. We invest in preventative measures, as a cost-effective way to improve health. The people who live here take an active role managing their own health. It means that people have their basic medical needs met and access to a variety of medical facilities and services.
Indicators in this category:
Health insurance coverage is considered to be one of the best indicators of access to healthcare, and businesses offering wellness programs allow employees to manage their personal health; just as healthcare for the uninsured is a community-wide concern because unpaid expenses are spread to providers and those with insurance.
Building a Healthy Nevada encourages healthy lifestyles so citizens can live longer and healthier lives, saving families, businesses and the community the high cost of care and treatment; adequate prenatal care reduces the risk of medical problems and infant mortality, while healthy behaviors and preventative healthcare increase productivity and economic prosperity.
Suicide rates are a marker of mental wellbeing and represent a cost to the community in terms of productive lives cut short; business employee assistance programs provide access to treatment when needed. This is a new indicator identified by the community in the 2006 update process.