Community urged to participate in health issues

STATE-WIDE — Mainehealth has launched its health index, and Healthy Oxford Hills (HOH) is taking notice.

The statewide organization is tracing six leading health indicators in comparison with the rest of the nation, and although the news wasn't all good, it wasn't all bad, either, the organization announced January 3.

Maine has moved up from the ninth healthiest state to the eighth, according to Deb Deatrick, the organization's vice president for community health.

The index traces rate of child immunization, the rate of tobacco use, the prevalence of obesity, the number of preventable hospitalizations and the rates of mortality due to cardiovascular disorders and cancer. A recent report showed these are already targets of efforts to address each of those areas of ill-health.

HOH will be holding a community strategic planning session next month, said Chris Davis, the organization's intrinsic coach. She's collecting local data to help address these, and other health issues that confront Oxford Hills residents, at an upcoming community discussion. At present, however, Davis is not yet ready to disclose what she has because it is incomplete and uninterpreted.

Although the exact date for the Healthy Maine Patrnerships' strategic planning session is still not certain, Ken Morse, HOH executive director, said he hopes to hold it around the middle of February. Morse said it's important to have community participation.

He and Davis are hoping to attract interested community members, including leaders of formal and informal civic groups for youth, parent and older adult groups. Also encouraged to attend are mental health and substance abuse providers, emergency responders, local government officials, people involved in early childhood development and education at all levels from pre-school to graduate school. Representatives of  social service agencies, both public and private, as well as other nonprofit and business leaders, active members of faith-based groups and law enforcement representatives will be welcomed.

In short, they're looking for a cross-section of anyone and everyone in the community that has the slightest reason to be interested in their health and that of others around them — put shorter yet, anybody

Interested parties can contact either Morse or Davis at Healthy Oxford Hills, 739-6222 or via email at the organization's website, healthyoxfordhills.org.

For example, Maine's cardiovascular health, compared to the U.S. average is very good, showing a steady decline for 15 years. But in northern and downeast Maine, the rates not as healthy as in the rest of the state, where there are greater efforts to educate the public.

Meanwhile, the incidence of obesity has increased in recent years and 26 percent of Maine's high school students are overweight.

In addition, according to the report, Maine has the seventh highest rate of death from cancer in the country. That's cancer of all sorts. Esophageal, bladder/urinary tract and bronchial-lung cancer deaths are significantly higher than most other states, and tobacco use has been implicated as a factor in those particular types of cancer.

Mainehealth is a nonprofit association of medical service providers. Stephens Memorial Hospital, and its parent, Western Maine Health, are among its members.