Onslow County health director presents 2024 community health needs assessment, prioritizes chronic disease and behavioral health

Health Director Kristen Hoover presented the Onslow County Board of Commissioners with the 2024 Community Health Needs Assessment on Monday, outlining survey and focus-group findings that led officials to make chronic disease prevention and behavioral health the county's two top priorities.

Hoover told the board the assessment combines publicly available secondary data on population and disease trends with primary data collected in 2024: six focus groups and a web-based survey that drew a little more than 1,100 responses. "We do this to meet general statutes, to meet our accreditation requirements, and in partnership with the hospital, to meet IRS requirements of the hospital," Hoover said.

The county and its hospital partner prioritized chronic disease prevention because local data show high prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, obesity and heart disease, Hoover said. Barriers cited in the assessment include limited access to healthy foods and exercise opportunities, high medication costs, and a shortage of some specialty care locally. Behavioral health emerged as the second priority after the assessment documented elevated local rates of so-called "deaths of despair" (suicide, overdoses and alcohol-related causes) and high levels of alcohol and tobacco use; Hoover noted that Onslow County's population is concentrated with active-duty service members and veterans, groups that typically show higher rates of mental-health disorders.

Hoover described current and planned county programs that address the priorities: a diabetes prevention program, "Healthy for Life" nutrition and lifestyle programming, the Faithful Families partnership with local congregations, and prevention work in schools such as the Catch My Breath anti-vaping program. For behavioral health the department has launched Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) suicide-prevention training, participates in a Strategic Opioid Advanced Response stakeholder group, runs an Overdose Fatality Review process and distributes naloxone (Narcan) with training. Hoover said the health department also offers medication take-back through Operation MedDrops; a drop box is located at the Public Safety Building.

Hoover said the assessment has been submitted to the Division of Public Health and that the next steps are to develop community health improvement plans (CHIPs), track progress with a scorecard and produce annual state-of-the-county health reports. "Now that we know these are the focus areas, what should we do about it? We will track the progress using a scorecard and develop annual state of the county health reports that we will bring to our board of health for review each year," she said. She added the next comprehensive assessment will be conducted in 2027.

Commissioners thanked Hoover for the presentation. County Manager Kevin Smitherman noted the county will publicize the draft assessment after Division of Public Health review, and Commissioner comments included a pledge to train county employees in mental-health first aid: Smitherman said the county aims to train about 1,400 employees within 12 months as part of implementation efforts.

There was no board action requested or taken on the assessment during the meeting; Hoover invited stakeholders and civic groups to request presentations from the health department's community relations team.