Invitiation to Lend Your Voice

Looking for a way to get involved in helping inprove the health of Lake County residents.  As the Deputy Health Commissioner I invite you to lend your voice.  The Lake County General Health District (LCGHD) is seeking comments on a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) that will be used to plan health improvement projects and policies in Lake County. The draft CHIP will be available in electronic format on LCGHD’s website at http://www.lcghd.org/ from October 24, 2011 until November 4, 2011to get feedback from interested residents, businesses, providers, and other service organizations. 

The CHIP is a product of the second stage of a process to improve community health for the residents of Lake County.  Several focus groups made of public and private stakeholders in Lake County have been created and meetings held to use the 2011 Lake County Community Health Assessment to develop the three-year CHIP. 

This is an exciting time and a perfect opportunity for change.  Everyone is experiencing the impact of the poor economy and many agencies need to cut costs in order to provide services.  This process will allow us to be transparent and work together to be more efficient in addressing the community needs.incredibly supportive. All too often, planning is completed in a vacuum because individuals may be concerned about criticism or diluting the ideas they started with.  The fact is that public agencies should be open to new ideas and challenge the way services have been developed in the past.

The Health District and I started the process knowing its success depends on building open communications and partnerships with new organizations, such as businesses and the faith-based community.   The two-week commenting period is one strategy to help accomplish this goal.  The second strategy is the expansion of its hugely successful Action Communities in Health, Innovation, and Environmental Change (ACHIEVE) Lake County initiative, which will act as the oversight body of the process from its adoption to its implementation phase.  ACHIEVE Lake County will also monitor its success over the three-year period.   Individuals interested in joining the ACHIEVE Lake County project may contact project lead, Tori Sinclair at 440-350-2442 or for more information visit www.lakecountyohio.gov/achieve.

Keep warm and we look forward to your feedback.

Ron H. Graham RD, LD, MPH