Randolph County is naming key health issues for the region and developing long-term strategies to address them.
Every three years, Randolph Public Health, in partnership with Randolph Health, completes an assessment based on data and community input. Some of last year’s findings highlight access to care, economic pressures, housing and transportation.
The two priority issues for 2025 were substance use disorder and a new focus: chronic disease. Health Promotion and Policy Supervisor Meagan Klinkenberg says she’s excited about developing improvement plans.
"Because I think that there are a number of directions we can go in helping the population in different ways," she says. "I mean, mental health and chronic disease can be kind of a co-occurring thing. So we're going to try to focus our efforts on expanding our mental health outreach, and maybe how that can apply to reducing the prevalence of certain chronic disease indicators."
Those indicators include things like high cholesterol, heart disease and high blood pressure. Klinkenberg says moving forward, they’ll conduct interviews, focus groups and town halls to better understand health concerns across the county.