Dear Lawrence County Community,
On behalf of the Lawrence County Health Action Team, our many community partners, local Board of Health, and Health Department staff, I am pleased to present our Community Health Assessment (CHA) and Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) for 2023-2027.
To identify priority health issues and strategies for improvement, the Lawrence County Health Department and the Lawrence County Health Action Team (HAT) convened our community partners to conduct a Community Health Assessment and Community Health Improvement Plan in January 2023. The group was comprised of stakeholders throughout the community and included representatives from healthcare, addiction services, mental health, developmental disabilities, education, emergency management, local government, higher education institutions, faith-based organizations, non-profit organizations, and recreation. The Community Health Improvement Plan is a long-term, systematic effort to address public health issues based on the results of the community health assessment activities and the community health improvement process. The plan was developed collaboratively and defines a vision for the community’s health.
Our community vision statement — working together to serve our community by creating optimal conditions for health for everyone – describes what we hope to achieve in the next five years. We are guided by our values — collaboration, communication, whole person health, service, and family.
The Lawrence County CHA and CHIP is a true community effort. We greatly appreciate the 39 community partners who are dedicated to improving the health of Lawrence County and the more than 500 survey participants who live, learn, work, and play in our community. We thank you for your commitment to this process and to Lawrence County. Through this work, we have identified our greatest challenges, prioritized strategic health issues, and developed measurable goals and objectives.
This is a robust roadmap for the community to follow and support through 2027 as part of the mission to improve the community’s health. We invite you to utilize this plan to inform yourself, get involved, and make Lawrence County a healthier community!
Best Regards,
Debbie Miller, MBA, MT (ASCP)
Public Health Director
