Substance abuse disorder, cancer, obesity, poverty and mental health are the most pressing health concerns in the Tri-State region according to the 2019 Community Health Needs Assessment.

Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital published the assessment on its website, BonSecours.com, after completing the report with community partners and the input of area residents to identify the region’s most pressing issues affecting health.

The CHNA was conducted for the service area of Greenup, Boyd, and Carter counties in Kentucky and Lawrence County in Ohio and was a collaborative effort between OLBH; King’s Daughters Medical Center (KDMC); the Healthy Choices, Healthy Communities coalition; the CHNA Advisory Group, and local health departments.

The CHNA was conducted between November 2018 and June 2019 and included both primary and secondary data analyses. The primary data included a questionnaire and focus groups with key individuals in the community, including residents, public health representatives, and those with special knowledge of medically underserved, low income, and vulnerable populations and people with chronic diseases.

“We appreciate the thousands of individuals who took the online survey or participated in community focus groups to help us develop this year’s CHNA,” said Diva Justice, OLBH director of Community Health. “It is a privilege to care for the health needs of people in our community, and learning what needs are on the mind of our community helps those of us at the hospitals, in public health or with the health coalition make the changes necessary to better direct the care we provide going forward.”

Every three years nonprofit hospitals are required to conduct a community health needs assessment in order to identify key health needs and issues through systematic, comprehensive data collection and analysis. OLBH and KDMC last conducted an assessment together in 2016, and the findings resulted in four workgroups being formed by the Healthy Choices, Healthy Communities coalition in order to find the best ways to address each. Both OLBH and KDMC are members of the coalition.

For more information on the CHNA, or to receive a paper copy of the assessment, call 606-833-3106.