The Grays Harbor Board of Commissioners voted to support a Summit Pacific Medical Center-led effort to improve the health of Harborites with $25,000 going toward a Blue Zones assessment.
“Blue Zones Project is an initiative that helps communities make healthy choices that improve the lives of participants and the overall quality of life within a community,” said John Elsner, Summit’s director of development and community relations, in July.
The county’s $25,000 will be paired with $25,000 from UnitedHealthcare to cover the $50,000 price tag of the assessment. Blue Zones representatives will come to Grays Harbor to evaluate the community’s propensity to benefit from the organization’s efforts. On Dec. 17, the Commission voted 2-1 to pay Sharecare Inc., parent company of Blue Zones LLC, for the assessment.
“It is essential that the community in general (and its strategic stakeholders in particular) be committed to improving the health and wellbeing of the community for Blue Zones to take on the project,” Elsner wrote in July. “This would include working in partnership to address issues in education, healthcare, infrastructure, transportation, food distribution, etc.”
Commissioner Wes Cormier, the lone dissenter in the vote to fund the Blue Zones effort, cited considerable long term expenses associated with Blue Zones’ proprietary brand.
“For me, it’s either you buy in or you don’t,” Cormier said citing Blue Zones efforts in Iowa that was supported by Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield for $25 million over five years, according a report by The (Cedar Rapids) Gazette. After the insurer pulled out of the Blue Zones program, local governments were left with the bill. Several of the governments also opted out but continued the efforts started by Blue Zones.
“Blue Zones gave us a strong foundation, but the cost was outside what we were willing to pay to continue,” Sara Mentzer, the then-coordinator for Be Well Marion told The Gazette. Be Well Marion is the program Marion, Iowa, officials started after exiting Blue Zones, The Gazette reported. Marion has a population of about 39,400 people.
Grays Harbor Commissioners Vickie Raines and Randy Ross both backed a Blue Zones assessment.
“It may be something that doesn’t do well,” Raines said. “But we need to look at it.”
“We’re now No. 36 out of 39 counties (in terms of health),” Ross said. “My biggest concern is it’s another $25,000 above our general fund budget.
“I’m looking at this as an investment in the future and am hoping it will pay off.”
The next step involves Blue Zones workers spending six to eight weeks evaluating the county and its ability to benefit from, and presumably pay for, what Blue Zones has to offer.
The term “blue zones” refers to five regions that have a high incidence of people living into their 100s: Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece, and Loma Linda, California.
The idea began with “demographic work done by Gianni Pes and Michel Poulain outlined in the Journal of Experimental Gerontology,” according the Blue Zones website. The journal article examined the high concentration of male centenarians in Sardinia, circled in blue on a map at the time, hence the term “blue zones.”
Blue Zone LLC founder Dan Buettner and his team of scientists expanded on that work and found nine lifestyle habits shared by the blue zone residents. He has since written several books on the topic.
“The philosophy is that strategic small changes can have a big impact,” Summit Pacific’s Elsner said in July. “The Blue Zones team is currently working with 49 communities around the United States and has extensive experience working with local communities to better understand what initiatives will have the greatest impact in their community.”
