The counties of Isabella, Clare and Gratiot have seen improvements in essential health and community-related categories according to the latest County Health Rankings report.

Released earlier this week, the report gives a snapshot as of 2017 and has data on topics such as the number of people without health insurance, the number of children in poverty and quality of life.

Most of the categories do not have data from 2017, according to Michele Alexander, spokesperson with County Health Rankings, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program based in Wisconsin and New Jersey that ranks each of the country’s counties on various categories.

“Data is never going to be from the year of or even the year before. There’s always a data lag,” Alexander said Wednesday.

Despite this, the information gives a good look into how counties are combating several issues.

More people have been found to have access to primary care physicians and mental health services, the report indicated.

As of 2015, there are approximately 1,600 people in Gratiot County and 2,780 people in Clare County for every one primary care physician. This is the most recent data available.

In Clare County, this is a positive change of 290 people as reported in 2014, meaning this many more people have this access.

Data from last year compared to 2016 indicates there are now 810 people in Gratiot County for every one mental health provider, which includes psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors and drug and alcohol abuse treatment.

Isabella County has 440 people for every one mental health provider as of last year, an increase from 490 reported in 2016.

The county’s access to mental health services has improved, said Julie Bayardo, Program Director for Isabella County with Community Mental Health for Central Michigan.

“I think some of that is the community itself taking a mental health approach,” Bayardo said.

She cited Central Michigan University’s counseling center, and private practices as well.

New programs have been added to Community Mental Health for Central Michigan such as multi-systemic therapy, she said.

This program supports juveniles in the court system and employees work with the family and children to coordinate treatment with anyone involved with them to improve their life.

“I think we’ve all really worked well together to find those gaps in services and doing what we can to fill those gaps,” she said.

The child poverty rate in Clare County decreased to 34 percent in 2016 from 39 percent in 2015.

“Children in poverty” means the percentage of children under age 18 living in poverty.

In 2016, there were an estimated 5,734 children age 0 to 19 in Clare County living in poverty while there were 6,830 estimated in 2015, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. The Bureau groups 15 to 19 year old people in the same age category.

Poverty status is defined by family; either everyone in the family is in poverty or no one in the family is in poverty.

The characteristics of the family used to determine the poverty threshold are: number of people, number of related children under 18, and whether or not the primary householder is over age 65.

Family income is then compared to the poverty threshold; if that family’s income is below that threshold, the family is in poverty.

More people in all three counties have health insurance, based on the most recent data from 2014 to 2015, the report indicated. This is the most recent data available.

For example, 6 percent, or about 2,049 people, of Gratiot County’s estimated population of 34,156 that is under the age of 65 has no health insurance as of 2015.

This is down from 10 percent in 2014. This is the most recent data available.

The Small Area Health Insurance Estimates uses the American Community Survey definition of insured when compiling this information.

An insured person is someone covered by insurance through, for example, an employer or union; insurance purchased directly through an insurance company; Medicare or Medicaid or Medical Assistance.