MANSFIELD, Ohio — Richland Public Health was one of five county health departments in Ohio awarded a substantial grant earlier in 2015 from the Ohio Department of Health. The grant’s programs and funds will end September 2018.
The grant, named Communities Preventing Chronic Disease, is designed to prevent chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and hypertension.
Richland County was identified by the Ohio Health Department as “a county with stats that show we need attention,” according to Margaret Lin, one of the grant’s employees.
Lin will be working in tandem with two others from RPH, Paige Warga and Melissa Culler. Lin said there are two main components of the grant that will help in its execution.
One, she said, takes up two-thirds of the grant’s work plan; it will focus on influencing environmental changes.
“The environmental change part of the grant is there to help set up our community to help support residents to lead a healthier lifestyle,” said Lin.
“If you go to your doctor and he or she says, ‘You’re overweight. You need to lose weight. Go exercise, go eat healthy.’ And then you wonder how. You might be in a situation where you live in a neighborhood where you don’t have sidewalks. Or you want to go buy fresh produce but maybe you live in what’s called a food desert,” she explained.
Lin defined a food desert as an area where there may be stores that offer packaged goods but lacks fresh produce.
The environmental changes component to the grant, therefore, will focus on effecting change in lifestyle habits, explained Lin.
“Poor lifestyle habits lead to chronic disease,Richland Public Health wants to promote healthy lifestyle changes,” said Lin.
The other part of the grant’s work plan is directed to making health system changes.
“The health system changes are to try to make sure that there is access, that things are going to roll smoothly between the different parts of the health care system. So people are getting good health care, good outcomes,” said Lin.
Lin, Warga and Culler will also work together in planning and hosting events that encapsulate the grant’s purpose. Bike To Work Day on May 15 is an example.* Warga said she is working on a number of projects for the community.
“I’m working on getting free groups together — walking groups, running groups, biking groups,” said Warga. She is also organizing free fitness classes that would last one week.
On May 12, Warga and Culler will work with the Butler school system’s Safe Routes to School program event. On June 6, Culler will partner with North Central Ohio Conservancy, who plans on building a hiking trail in southern Richland County.
For more information on RPH events, visit their website.
