Health District Response to Recent News Herald Editorial.

Dear Lake County News Herald Editor,

I am writing in response to the Letter to the Editor titled “Plan for Obesity” by Mr. Walter Tornstrom from Kirtland.  I would like to start by saying Mr. Tornstrom is “almost” on target with his comments.  First, there is a need to change Food Stamps to be limited to healthier food choices (Federal policy change); a move the Federal WIC program took several years ago.  The Lake County General Health disagrees that “cutting” the amount of cash benefits will directly impact obesity; rather, it will only cause many families to turn to lower cost high fat foods.  Secondly, we do not feel that the reintroduction of gymnastics is the answer (not appropriate for all children) but, Mr. Tornstrom is on target with gradual and goal oriented increases in physical activity.  The Health District is supporting increased purposeful daily physical activity for children in school, as well as adults in their daily lives.  Furthermore, the Health District applied for a 1.7 million dollar Federal Carol M. White grant to implement a county-wide physical activity curriculum in all public schools 9K-12) to support this very concept.  Third, the YMCA and Metroparks are not giving freebies but doing what they should do; improving access to physical activity for the community in which supports them financially.  To effectively turn back the clock on obesity it will certainly take the combined efforts of both education and policy adoption through community agencies, parents, employers, and health professionals working together. We encourage community members to join our Action Communities for Health, Innovation, and EnVironmental changE (ACHIEVE) initiative.  ACHIEVE  is a collaborative approach to develop and implement solutions that prevent chronic diseases supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Healthy Communities Program. To find out more visit www.lakecountyohio.gov/achieve . 

Sincerely,
Ron H. Graham RD,LD, MPH

Deputy Health Commissioner

Lake County General Health District

Lake County General Health District Battles Obesity

In a report from the Ohio Department of Health in 2010 the rate of being overweight/obese for Lake County 3rd graders went fromLake 25.9% in the 2004-2005 school year to 28% in the 2009-2010 school year.  Over 1 out of every 4 children in 3rd grade are overweight.  This percentage increases as age increases resulting in over two-thirds or over 66% of adults being overweight or obese.   Numerous studies support that health care costs will increase and life expectancy will decrease if we do not effectively intervene in our young children. 

Read our article in the News Herald http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2011/08/27/news/doc4e584dd482b90365908199.txt?viewmode=fullstory, we would encourage any discussion how we can assist parents in helping reduce obesity in our Lake County Children. 

2011 Community Health Assessment

Hello,

The Lake County General Health District seeks to continually provide efficient, cost-effective, and evidence based services to the residents and communities within Lake County. The declining economic environment over the last several has led to an increased number of residents unable to access health services and many community based agencies to lack the resources necessary to meet these needs.

The purpose of the Lake County General Health District’s 2011 Community Health Assessment is three fold; (1) It allows the Health District to meet the current needs of the community, based on actual data, by providing services relevant to our residents, (2) It allows prevention programs to better tailored to specific populations (i.e people ages 35-45 versus people ages 65 and older), (3) It allows us to utilize the data in preparing for Federal and State grants to support critical services in Lake County. Furthermore, there is an inherent benefit to conducting one community health assessment, developed by multiple stakeholders, so that questions and results may be share with countless community based agencies and political leaders to help each of them make informed decisions.

The Lake County General Health District would like to extend its gratitude to all of the community agencies and professionals who donated their time and resources to make this assessment a success, as well as, the residents of Lake County who took the time to complete the survey and helped to be part of our efforts to improve services within Lake County.

DID YOU KNOW:
Research indicates that males are much less likely to complete surveys than women, our 2011 Lake County Community Health Assessment proved the same. A total of 2,568 respondents participated in the 2011 LCCHA. Nearly three-quarters (73.8%, 1669 respondents) of the survey respondents were female while 26.2% (593 respondents) were male.

In order to elimate this problem in the future we would like to know what would encourage more males to complete a survey to improve health options in Lake County. Please let us know what we should do?

Social Media

Hello.

The Lake County General Health District, located in Painesville Ohio, will be providing a discussion on the health issues impacting the residents of Lake County; seeking to provide education, promoting county resources, and leading discussions on innovative solutions.

We look forward to presenting information on health issues identified in our soon to be releases 2011 Lake County Community Health Assessment. 

Warmest regards,