HANFORD, Calif. – Chronic disease, maternal and infant health, and food insecurity are among the priorities the Kings County Department of Public Health has put in its sights for the next five years. They’re part of the county’s first-ever multiyear Community Health Improvement Plan, which aims to tackle major public health issues over a period from 2024 to 2028.
The plan was published a few months after a Community Health Assessment revealed many health outcomes to be more severe in Kings County than in other parts of the state. For instance, the county’s rates of age-adjusted mortality and food insecurity are higher than the state average, and the teenage birth rate is almost twice as high.
This information “wasn’t necessarily a surprise, but to see it quantified on a report was really pretty stark,” said county Public Health Director Rose Mary Rahn. “What it made me realize is how much our economy, our housing, our wealth, our access, all impacts our health—our physical health and our mental health.”
Meeting these challenges, said Rahn, will require collaborating with healthcare providers—including Adventist Health, which operates a facility in Hanford—and non-profit organizations that are embedded within the community.
“I know we, as a health department, can't do this alone. We need to have a community partnership,” Rahn said.
She added the 5-year plan was written with the help of focus groups from throughout the county, including a Kings County Health Equity Advisory Panel. The community driven nature of the plan, said Rahn, was partly informed by the pandemic – which helped reveal that some communities, including those in rural, outlying areas, tend to be overlooked.
“It really reminded us as public health professionals that we need to be talking to those communities, be in those communities, understand what the real needs are,” she said.
Kings County isn’t alone with these health needs. Rahn says many will require a regional approach, which is why her agency is collaborating on some interventions with Fresno and Madera counties.
