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Richland County outlines CHIP to tackle mental-health challenges and binge drinking
Summary
Public-health staff presented a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) centered on two priorities — mental health and substance misuse — based on a 266-resident assessment and new implementation work groups, with outreach tools such as festival toolkits, signage and employer surveys.
Evan Nguyen, a public health specialist with Richland County Health and Human Services, told the committee the county’s Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) focuses on two priorities: mental health and substance misuse, particularly alcohol.
“Our overarching goal for mental health is to improve the mental health of Richland County adults,” Nguyen said, noting the CHIP is informed by a Community Health Assessment that included about 266 residents. The data shaped objectives to reduce self-reported mental-health challenges and the number of poor mental-health days reported by residents.
Nguyen described stigma, limited access to services and permissive alcohol norms as contributing factors. To address those issues, the county has launched two work groups (mental health and substance misuse), partnered with the Partners for Prevention alcohol coalition, and begun practical outreach: student-designed signage reminding servers to check age and not serve visibly intoxicated patrons, festival toolkits for event organizers and promotion of alcohol-free family events.
The CHIP implementation also includes a lived-experience anonymous survey for residents struggling with mental health or substance misuse and a separate set of business and employee surveys to assess employer supports and inform interventions. Nguyen said the business survey will be offered in person and virtually; the employee survey will be anonymous and distributed with incentives still under consideration.
To strengthen care connections, the county is partnering with Richland Hospital’s CHIP action plan and is developing a referral pathway involving Southwest CAP community health workers to better connect patients to appropriate services and reduce reliance on crisis care. Nguyen said work groups will continue to meet monthly and training offerings such as Mental Health First Aid and safeTALK will be promoted to expand local capacity.
The presentation closed with committee questions about toolkit distribution to fair and festival organizers; Nguyen said partners planned outreach and that signs had been accepted and posted in at least one village, and suggested using QR codes and social media to distribute the anonymous employee survey.
