LISBON — Columbiana County health entities recently released their three-year plan for tackling the key health issues of behavioral health, obesity and chronic disease facing county residents, with goals aimed at reducing obesity, reducing suicides and overdoses and increasing preventative care for adults and children.

“The improvement plan is the action piece,” Columbiana County Health Commissioner Dr. Wesley Vins said when the county health district board approved the 2026-2028 Community Health Improvement Plan.

In July 2025, the board approved the 2025-2028 Community Health Needs Assessment for Columbiana County which identified behavioral health, obesity and chronic disease as the key health issues.

At that time, all the health partners said the next step would be to “use the key findings identified from this assessment to prioritize health needs and create a Community Health Improvement Plan.”

Now the health improvement plan is complete, with priorities, strategies, proposed outcomes and action steps for each year identified.

Three priorities were identified in the fight against obesity: increase the number of schools and students utilizing the OSU extension nutrition program by one school annually; increase participation of seniors in the Silver Sneakers program in the county by 2% annually; and increase healthy eating and physical activity of school-aged children by 3 % bi-annually on the school youth survey responses.

According to the plan, the idea is to “improve access to nutrition education among K-12 students, fostering healthy eating behaviors and supporting long-term obesity prevention in the county” and for “improved nutrition behaviors and increased regular physical activity among school-aged children, contributing to long-term reductions in obesity and chronic disease risk.”

For nutrition education, the plan is to identify one new school district and initiate a partnership with OSU Extension nutrition programming in 2026, expand to additional classrooms within participating districts in 2027 and evaluate program outcomes and gather teacher and student feedback in 2028.

For increasing healthy eating and physical activity for kids, the plan suggests collaborating with school districts to administer the Columbiana County Youth Survey to identify priority needs and implement at least one school-based healthy behavior initiative in 2026, support at least two schools in expanding nutrition or physical activity projects through the CASH Coalition and OSU Extension in 2027 and evaluate progress through a followup youth survey in 2028.

To increase the number of senior citizens participating in the Silver Sneakers fitness programs, with a priority of adults aged 60 and older, the plan is to conduct outreach at senior centers, libraries and community events to promote enrollment in Silver Sneakers and provide materials and assistance with program registration in 2026, encourage participants to bring a friend and track increases and retention rates in 2027 and evaluation participation and barriers to engagement in 2028.

Under behavioral health, the priorities included reducing the number of county suicides by 3% annually and reducing the number of unintended drug overdoses by 3% annually.

To reduce suicides, the plan listed the following strategy: “strengthen suicide prevention, awareness and postvention efforts through coordinated community training, data review and cross-sector collaboration to improve early identification of individuals at risk and connect them to appropriate care.”

Actions steps include providing mental health first aid training to non-profit and public service employees in 2026, partner with the county Mental Health and Recovery Services Board and the county coroner’s office to share and review suicide data to identify trends, risk factors and opportunities for prevention in 2027 and use the findings of the data reviews to implement at least one targeted suicide prevention initiative in 2028.

To reduce unintended drug overdoses, the plan calls for partnering with the county health department and local law enforcement to expand Narcan distribution and training for first responders and community members in 2026, collaborating the MHRSB to strengthen referral systems between emergency departments, treatment centers and peer recovery program in 2027 and conduct an annual review of overdose data with key partners to identify high-risk areas and populations and implement at least one targeted outreach or education campaign informed by the findings in 2028. Another action step was to establish a drug overdose and suicide prevention board. The ball is already rolling on that after the county commissioners agreed to the formation of such a board.

In the area of chronic disease, the priorities include: increasing the number of preventative care visits by 0.5% annually by promoting and increasing use of preventative health services; improving the ratio of local primary care providers by 1% annually by increasing the local primary care workforce through recruitment, retention and collaborative partnerships; and increasing the number of children enrolled in Medicaid by 2% annually by strengthening outreach and enrollment efforts to ensure all eligible children are enrolled in Medicaid through collaboration with schools, healthcare providers and social service agencies.

To increase preventative care visits, the plan calls for developing and distributing educational materials highlighting the importance of annual wellness exams and preventative screenings in 2026, partner with local healthcare providers to host preventative health fairs and screening events in 2027 and evaluate the data and identify areas for targeted outreach in 2028.

To improve the ratio of local primary care provides, the plan calls for looking at primary care provider distributions and identify shortage areas in the county in 2026, working with local healthcare systems and universities to promote placement or residency rotations in Columbiana County primary care and specialty settings in 2027 and evaluating progress toward the goal in 2028.

To increase the number of children enrolled in Medicaid, the plan suggests conducting a community awareness campaign to promote Medicaid eligibility and enrollment resources via schools, clinics and social media in 2026 and 2027 and to evaluate enrollment data to identify gaps in coverage and continue collaborating with community partners to maintain growth in numbers in 2028.

“Over the next three years, these priorities and strategies will be implemented at the county level with the hope to improve population health and create lasting, sustainable change,” the executive summary for the plan said.

The plan is the result of the county partners looking at the results of the county health assessment, which included community feedback, information from stakeholder interviews and a gathering of data to come up with the assessment.

The county health partners included both public and private agencies in the public health system, including the county health district, the Salem and East Liverpool city health districts, East Liverpool City Hospital, Salem Regional Medical Center, Akron Children’s Hospital, the Community Action Agency of Columbiana County, the county Educational Service Center, county Department of Job and Family Services, county Mental Health and Recovery Services Board, Coordinated Action for School Health, Family and Children First Council, Family Recovery Center and The Ohio State University Extension.

Both the Community Health Needs Assessment and the Community Health Improvement Plan can be found posted on the county health district website at www.columbiana-health.org.