BY MYCCA DECKER
APPALACHIAN NEWSPAPERS

INEZ — Public health leaders from Floyd, Johnson, Magoffin, Martin and Pike counties announced the creation of the Mountain Wellness Collaborative during an event at the Martin County Health Department on May 20.

The collaborative will bring the health departments together to address diabetes, obesity, heart disease and other chronic diseases through prevention, education and shared resources.

Eric Mills, director of public health for the Martin County Health Department, said the effort is meant to improve health outcomes across Eastern Kentucky.

“Chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity and heart disease, and many others have plagued our region for far too long,” Mills said. “For some people, going to the doctor has been like a second job for many years now.”

According to Mills, some counties in the region have life expectancies 10 to 15 years shorter than the national average. He said obesity rates exceed 40 percent of the population, and one in five residents is living with diabetes.

Mills said the Mountain Wellness Collaborative will allow health departments, schools, health care providers, community organizations and other partners to work together across county lines.

Ezalee Pigman, public health director of the Johnson County Health Department in Paintsville, said public health leaders in the region have worked together for years, but the collaborative gives that work a regional structure.

“As community leaders in public health, we’ve collaborated for years informally,” Pigman said. “But today, we lock arms as a five-county region to say enough is enough.”

According to Pigman, the collaborative will be used to share resources, use existing programs and work toward changing the culture of health in Eastern Kentucky.

Pigman said the goal is to approach chronic disease as one region.

Mills said the collaborative is moving forward before funding has been secured.

“We’re doing this before we have any funding to do it with,” Mills said. “We are committed to wellness in our region, and we recognize it’s important that we come together formally.”

Martha Ellis, public health director of the Floyd County Health Department, said the collaborative represents a change in how public health departments in the region approach chronic disease.

According to Ellis, no single county can address chronic disease alone. She said the collaborative will allow counties to share resources, strengthen prevention efforts and expand opportunities in their communities.

Tammy Riley, Pike County Health Department public health director and Kentucky Health Department Association president, said the effort is meant to connect resources that already exist in Eastern Kentucky.

“So often, here in Eastern Kentucky, we have a wealth of resources, but we sometimes work in silos,” Riley said. “The Mountain Wellness Collaborative is a wonderful opportunity to bring those resources together and have a united front to address chronic disease in Eastern Kentucky.”

According to Riley, counties in the Big Sandy region share many of the same health concerns, including high rates of diabetes and obesity, while also facing county-specific challenges.

Riley said public health departments and community partners have worked for years to address chronic disease, but the region has not seen the progress officials want.

“What we’re seeing is, we’re not moving the needle in the direction that we would like to see it move,” Riley said.

Riley said the collaborative will focus on prevention and reaching residents before they are diagnosed with chronic disease.

“We know that our healthcare ecosystem in Eastern Kentucky has done a wonderful job in treating individuals who’ve already been diagnosed with diabetes, cardiovascular disease,” Riley said. “But public health focuses on prevention.”

Riley said the goal is to bring resources together before residents reach the point of diagnosis.

“We want individuals to be addressed before they’re diagnosed,” Riley said.

Community organizations in Floyd, Johnson, Magoffin, Martin and Pike counties are encouraged to contact their local health department for more information, according to Riley.