Kandiyohi County adopts a five-year community health improvement plan focused on aging, youth mental well-being and substance use

Kandiyohi County Public Health presented a five-year Community Health Improvement Plan to the county board on Oct. 21, 2025, identifying aging, mental well-being for youth and substance use as the county’s top three public-health priorities.

“For the next handful of years, this is a roadmap for improving our community’s public health,” Forrest Rice, the county’s public-health planner, told the board. The plan was submitted to the state July 31 and is based on a community health assessment that incorporated demographic data and input from more than 100 community participants.

The presentation summarized the county’s demographic outlook and the data behind the priorities: Kandiyohi County’s population was cited as about 43,732 in the last census and is projected to grow modestly to about 46,573 by 2040. The plan notes a growing share of older residents — the county’s 75–79 and 80–84 age groups are expected to increase notably between 2025 and 2029 — and sets goals to support healthy aging and access to services that preserve independence and quality of life.

On youth mental health, the county used Minnesota Student Survey results showing a decline in the share of children reporting zero adverse childhood experiences and an increase in those reporting four or more ACEs between 2019 and 2022. The presentation cited that 21.1% of eleventh graders reported they “almost always” feel good about themselves. Rice showed forecast models using local clinical-diagnosis data indicating mental-health diagnoses among children rose between 2020 and 2024 and were projected to continue rising absent stronger intervention; he cautioned that increased diagnoses can partly reflect better screening and reduced stigma.

Substance-use diagnoses also rose sharply, the plan said: county electronic-health-record counts of diagnosed substance-use disorders climbed from about 1,390 cases in 2020 to about 2,330 in 2024, and co-occurring substance-use and mental-health diagnoses have grown faster than substance-use alone. The plan sets goals to strengthen prevention, increase access to treatment and recovery supports, and address underlying causes.

Rice noted the plan aligns with Healthy Minnesota 2025–2029, Healthy People 2030 and other statewide and national health strategies. Commissioners asked about interconnections with housing, childcare and food security during discussion; Rice and board members agreed those issues interact with the chosen priorities, even if they were not the three headline areas the plan will focus on initially.

Rice said the plan will guide county and community partners’ efforts over the next five years, and the county will track the plan’s indicators and return to the board with progress updates.