CARMEL – Putnam County health officials have completed a laborious six-month long Community Health Assessment (CHA) to improve the health and wellbeing of the county’s 100,000 residents.
The 15-page document names three priorities and related interventions, which will be tracked and reported annually to the State Health Department.
County Public Health Director Rian Rodriguez said it was “important to gather a wide range of perspectives and ensure people facing special challenges were heard. Our staff traveled throughout the county and spoke with residents about their top health concerns—for themselves, their families, and their communities.”
The five areas that mattered most to community members were the same as those selected by key stakeholders from community-based partner organizations. They included economic stability, mental health and suicide prevention, childhood preventive services, healthcare access, and healthy eating and food access. After analyzing and synthesizing the input with guidance from the State Prevention Agenda, the three chosen priorities for Putnam County were poverty/economic stability, anxiety and stress, and healthy children/preventive services.
For the preventive services priority, increasing rates of adolescents who complete the HPV vaccine series was selected. Activities will be twofold and focus on reducing cancer risk.
First, a social media campaign targeting areas with low vaccination rates will be conducted. Next, provider-directed activities will include enhancing practice support through various methods such as educating providers and launching a system of vaccine reminders.
Shanna Siegel, Putnam’s Supervising Public Health Educator, said, “While the state requires that we select and report to them on three priorities, we have other important health challenges in our county and numerous health promotion programs at the health department that focus on alcohol and tobacco use, food access and healthy eating, healthcare access, maternal childcare and tickborne disease.”
County Executive Kevin Byrne said, “The cycle of community health improvement planning confirms the critical need to support our ongoing county mental health initiatives, which we have already backed through strategic funding adjustments. Putnam County does well when it comes to independent health rankings. However, with the work put in place by this plan and the joint vision of our health department and its partners, we can take it to the next level and Putnam residents will reap enhanced health benefits.”
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