Chris Dickey, his wife, Claudia and daughter Nadia have lived for several decades in a very nice house in Barryville with a lovely, covered porch. I know Chris as we both were members of Team #6 during the recent 2025 Litter Sweep. We cleaned up several miles of roadways in Lumberland. Professionally, Chris is an educator and holds a PHD in Public Health and founded the NYU Applied Global Public Health Initiatives and has taught graduate and undergraduate students at NYU for the past twenty-five years where students collaborate on global and U.S public health projects. He has worked with several United Nations agencies on health-related issues in countries throughout the world. In addition, he is currently the Chairman of the Programs Committee on the Board of the Catholic Medical Mission which provides new medical programs and support services for many successful international rural health programs. As my Grandma Helen would say “this guy knows his beans” when it comes to delivering healthcare services.

According to the 2024 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Rankings and Roadmap report Sullivan County is showing improvements in overall health standards. The Foundation’s data reports positive news that indicated the County has risen from 60th place in 2023 to 57th ranking in 2024 out of 62 counties across NYS. Despite the reported improvements in rankings the overall health outcomes have not improved and have slightly gotten worse. Several data factors did not improve including the flu vaccination rates,  the ratio of primary care doctors to the local population as the number of healthcare providers and services shrinks and the number of preventable hospital stays. The positive improvement in the ranking can be ties to the work of the Sullivan180 initiatives (The Gerry Foundation) SALT – Sullivan Agencies Acting Together ( a huge hat tip to Marty Colavito)and the Cornell Cooperative Extension. 

Chris Dickey has been assessing the lack of healthcare services here in Highland, and he was recently awarded a grant by the New York Health Foundation to start a local health survey about how Highlanders get their healthcare. According to Chris they “want to make sure that whatever healthcare services come to our town are sustainable and have been identified as priorities by the community members, and we want to do what’s good for our neighbors.”

The survey has no connection to your doctors or wherever you get your healthcare and doesn’t in any way change what doctors you use but focuses on how you access the medical care you need and looking at any barriers you face along the way like travel time, cost, having your insurance company assign you a doctor or the lack of available appointments. I participated in the health survey and wasn’t asked any health specific questions. The survey focused on how I dealt with healthcare problems and what the process was timewise for me to get to my doctor and what the costs were as far as prescriptions and co-pays. Some questions were just very general in nature about my experiences as a community member here in Highland. No information was to in anyway identify me as a patient. The ultimate goal is to open up a healthcare/services center here locally in Highland that works to meet the needs of our community. For the thirty plus years I have lived here, local Healthcare services has always been a problem and now a great opportunity is available to rectify this issue. Come with all your questions and concerns for Chris Dickey and his team to answer and have some refreshments to boot. The “Your Health Your Voice” open community forum on healthcare services will take place on Wednesday July 9 at 7-8:30pm at the Highland Senior Center located at 725 State Route 55 in Eldred.