New report: Violent crime, poverty higher in Cumberland County than North Carolina average
Cumberland County residents face higher violent crime rates and lower incomes than the average North Carolinian, according to a report released Monday by the Cumberland County Department of Public Health.
The Cumberland Community Health Assessment Report identified four priority areas of focus over the next three years, according to a Department of Public Health news release. Those four key issues were the economy, substance abuse, public safety and mental health. The release said that the department works with Cape Fear Valley Medical Center every three years to conduct the assessments.
“These priorities support the Healthy North Carolina 2030 objective to build a healthier future for all,” said Dr. Jennifer Green, Cumberland County Health director, in the release.
The report is an accreditation requirement for the health department and Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, Green said Friday. Although the data for the assessment was collected in 2021 and the report was written in early 2022, the report was not published until last week because it had to be approved by state officials first, she said.
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Green emphasized that death data in the report would not reflect deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic, explaining that death data from the state of North Carolina tends to lag by a few years. The results of the community survey, however, would reflect the impact of the pandemic because it was conducted in 2021, Green said.
The economy
Poverty was a major concern for those surveyed, with 18% of Cumberland County residents living below the poverty level compared to the statewide average of 15%, according to the report.
In 2021, Cumberland County was designated as a Tier 1 county — those described as the "most distressed" — by the North Carolina Department of Commerce. The tiers are based on the average unemployment rate, median household income, percentage growth in population and adjusted property tax base per capita, the report said.
Cumberland County’s average household income was almost $10,000 less than the statewide average, with Cumberland County residents earning a median household income of $46,875 and North Carolinians taking home $54,602 on average, according to the report. The problem impacted some of the county’s youngest residents, too, with 26% of children in Cumberland County living in poverty, 5% higher than North Carolina’s 21% average.
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Although Cumberland County’s population was projected to reach 334,662 people by 2029, this does not mean the county’s size will significantly increase, according to the report.
“Population growth is expected to decline by 2029,” the report said. “Population growth and decline can be impacted by different factors such as aging of population, immigration levels, disease burden and birth rates.”
Substance abuse and mental health
Substance abuse and mental health were other common worries described in the assessment, with substance abuse tied with violent crime as the second most important quality of life issue reported by residents. Unintentional injury, including drug overdose and accidental poisoning, was the leading cause of death by injury in Cumberland County in the assessment. Heart disease was the overall leading cause of death for Cumberland County residents, the report said.
Unintentional injury ranked fourth in the county for causes of death, according to the report. Suicide was the 10th-leading cause of death in Cumberland County, a cause that does not appear on the statewide top 10 rankings for causes of death. Suicide by firearm was third on the list of top causes of death by injury, the report said.
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Green said substance abuse and mental health concerns were especially linked in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw an uptick in opioid deaths and drug overdoses.
“Those two things, I think, are really some of the key things I’d like to call out in the community health assessment,” she said.
Public safety
Cumberland County’s violent crime rate was higher than the statewide average and increased from 2016 to 2019, growing from 670 violent crimes to 786.6 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents, the report said. Additionally, Cumberland County still saw more property crime than the average North Carolina county, though the number of reported property crimes in the county decreased over previous years, according to the report.
Juvenile delinquency was a particular area of concern for the county and occurred in Cumberland County at a higher rate than statewide, the report said.
“The arrest risk for undisciplined juveniles increases because of adverse experiences including abuse and home life problems,” the report said. “There were more juveniles who were unlawfully absent from school in Cumberland County than for the state and Health ENC regional average.”
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Cumberland County noted one major decline, with the county’s incarceration rate steadily shrinking over the past four surveys, although the incarceration rate from 2019 to 2020 for Cumberland County was higher than the state’s average. About 356 people were in jail for every 1,000 residents in Cumberland County, the report said, noting the number as “an improvement overall”.
Highs and lows
Green highlighted the county’s high school completion rate and continuing education rate as points of pride, adding that she was happy to see progress on the number of people without health insurance in Cumberland County.
“We have a few more people that are insured than at our last community health assessment,” she said. “Still some work to do there.”
The rates of adult smokers and obese adults in the county had also improved but, Green said, could be better.
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She said a crucial part of the assessment is evaluating that areas of improvement are improvements for all residents,
“I think one of the things that we are continuing to look at is for those things that were trending in the right direction, are we trending in the right direction for all groups? Is there a disparity by race, ethnicity, or zip code?” she said. “How can we continue to get better for all of our population and not just segments of our population?”
Green said she was especially concerned by some of Cumberland County’s economic issues, such as food insecurity and affordable housing.
“We know those were severely impacted by the pandemic,” she said. “Those were a couple of trends that we’re also concerned about that we know may even continue to change in the years to come because of the pandemic and that we’re monitoring pretty closely.”
Next steps
Armed with the information from the assessment, Green said, her team’s next steps involved completing the Community Health Improvement Plan, also known as CHIP.
“We went back to the stakeholders to figure out, what are the actionable items that we can do based on our self-health assessment?” she said. “Those are going to be things that are aligned with other initiatives that you see going on in the community.”
The plan should be published in a few months, Green said. The assessment will also be used to inform the Cumberland County Board of Health of key issues in the county.
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“Our Board of Health every few years develops a strategic plan, and we use the results of this strategic plan to help inform the priorities of the Health Department,” Green said.
She touted the assessment as a comprehensive evaluation of the community’s health needs.
“Between us and the hospital, this is really one of the only true community health assessments that are conducted countywide,” she said. “We have lots of organizations that do their own assessments, and we use their data to help inform our assessment, but this is really a broad look at the health of the community overall, which is why it’s a requirement for health departments to do it and hospitals to do it.”
Green said she was proud of the community survey included in the assessment. One of her team's strategies was to conduct surveys at the department's mass vaccination clinics at the Crown Complex in 2021, she said.
“We had a really good response rate from people doing the surveys," she said.
Green’s team also conducted special focus groups, for populations thad responded in lower numbers to the survey in past assessments, such as young adults and non-English speakers, including focus groups for college students and migrant farmworkers.
“Those are populations that are just less likely to take our survey based on our last assessment, so we really wanted to make sure that they do not get left out in giving input,” Green said.
Green described the assessment as a “broad look at all of the things that impact health” that plays a crucial part in maintaining and improving the health of Cumberland County residents.
“It’s a useful tool that we don’t want to sit on the shelf,” she said. “We want people to use it to help inform the way that their organizations work.”
The 2021 Cumberland County Public Health Assessment can be accessed online by visiting the County Health Department's website and clicking on "About Us," then clicking on the "Reports and Plans" tab. Printed copies of the report are available at Cumberland County libraries and the Cumberland County Department of Public Health. Printed copies can also be requested by calling the department's Health Education Division at 910-433-3890.
Public safety reporter Lexi Solomon can be reached at ABSolomon@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Cumberland County health assessment IDs crime, income as major issues
