LIMA — The co-director of Activate Allen County said there is “work to be done” for the county to improve its health rankings, as it dropped 10 spots from the previous year.
Allen County fell from 36th to 46th in 2017, according to the latest Ohio county health rankings from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. The report ranks each Ohio county based on a number of health outcomes and factors.
With 88 counties in Ohio, Allen County is in the bottom half in terms of health in the entire state. The county continues to rank poorly in criteria regarding sexually transmitted diseases, single-parent households and violent crime, though there are some positives trends being seen in the health of the county.
Kayla Monfort, co-director of Activate Allen County, found positives in health behaviors, which includes adult smoking, excessive drinking and teen births.
“In 2010 and 2011, we were 84th out of 88 (counties), which was a really poor ranking in terms of Ohio,” Monfort said. “Currently we’re at 71 out of 88, so we’re not doing fantastic but we’re not doing as poorly as before.”
Monfort added that the improvement in this health area can be attributed in part to the work Activate Allen County is doing to encourage healthy living among county residents.
“As far as Activate Allen County, we’re bringing people together and really looking to see how we can move that needle of health,” she said. “I think Activate Allen County is a really great and unique tool to have people from different hospitals, different city governments and CEOs all at the same table, coming together to talk about these issues.”
Monfort said a community survey that will be released in August will be a useful tool to see where there are health gaps. The goal, she said, is to use this information to help improve the health of residents in Allen County.
Though she said there are some areas where Allen County’s health is improving, she admitted there is much room for improvement.
“While there’s really great things that have been done in terms of obesity and tobacco control, we still have a lot of crime issues, and opioid abuse is really at a high right now,” Monfort said. “We’re really looking to impact those areas in the future, so we still have a lot of work to do.”
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