Would you like it if you and members of your family could live to 100? If Thursday’s Blue Zones presentation at the Missouri Highlands office in Poplar Bluff is any indication, it could be an eventual possibility.
At the beginning of the meeting, Missouri Highlands CEO Karen White greeted everyone and explained why she was motivated to seek out a program like Blue Zones. Blue Zones are regions of the world where people are known to live longer with better long-term health outcomes. Locations include Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; and Icaria, Greece. The Blue Zones company focuses on specific communities and helps develop programs to improve health and longevity.
“I have worked in healthcare for 15 years,” White stated. “And I have been very impacted by taking care of my family, friends, and neighbors.”
White noted she initially reached out to the Blue Zones company two years ago, and she was persistent in getting the organization to take a serious look at Poplar Bluff. A fact-finding evaluation by the company in September led to a 180-page report detailing what could be a healthier future for the community of Poplar Bluff.
“Today is the culmination of all that,” White exclaimed. “And it might just be the first step in a new journey for the community.”
“We started evaluating this area in September,” Account Executive Allison Wiswell informed the group. “Today we have a report prepared for you that shows you our findings regarding this community and the readiness overview.”
Wiswell went on to explain that there are numerous categories that are closely evaluated to help the company determine readiness within a community. Those categories are the community’s current initiatives and plans, leadership support, governing body support and continuity, and well-being improvement.
“Poplar Bluff scored very highly,” Wiswell remarked. “Our determination was made based on looking at a 10-year projection of what might happen within the community without intervention. I think there’s a lot of synergy here, and we can accomplish a lot.”
When looking at the potential future cost without Blue Zone intervention, it was determined that there could be a projected medical cost saving of $68.9 million. It was also concluded that there could be an approximate $29.5 million of both direct and indirect benefits to the regional economy.
Without significant intervention, the report projects an estimated medical cost of $3.79 billion with productivity costs of $1.25 billion after 10 years.
“There is definite room for progress here,” Wiswell noted. “Poplar Bluff does have a relatively high rate of chonic illnesses. One thing that I’ve heard a lot of here is that this is a community where people pull themselves up by their bootstraps and pitch in to help each other when there’s need.
“That’s how this will work, because it is a community effort from the top down.”