The first step toward resolving some of the health and wellness issues plaguing Lawrence County was to acknowledge that these problems exist. The second step was getting people together to focus on finding solutions.

It is that latter component that is ongoing as the Lawrence County Health and Wellness Initiative gears up for its second meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday in the multi-purpose room at South Point High School.

This initiative began officially in November as Ohio University Southern Professor David Lucas took umbrage to the fact that Lawrence county ranked dead last among Ohio’s 88 counties in several measures of health factors and outcomes according to a study compiled by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute that was released earlier this year.

The measures were startling as Lawrence County fell near the bottom in many key measures such as morbidity and mortality The county also ranked very high in premature death rate, diabetes, smoking and obesity sometimes as much as double the national average in these statistical categories.

We’ve championed this cause from the beginning and hope to see it continue to grow and be embraced by the community.

Making changes of this magnitude will not be easy but the time to start is now and anyone can be a part of the solution.