Rogers County Wellness Program

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2014

Rogers County is located in Northeast Oklahoma. According to Americashealthranking.org Oklahoma is ranked 45th in obesity rates. This is not something we Oklahomans are proud of. For too long, we have focused on treating people after they become sick instead of preventing diseases before they occur. In Rogers County we are trying to change the way we think of health and we are starting with our community. The program is innovative in that it involves the local county health department and other entities within the County providing leadership and capacity to uniquely leverage the power of community partnerships to improve health. We created a community health fair to implement a project that builds a sound wellness infrastructure. This program’s purpose is to show our community what wellness looks like and how easily obtained it can be. We want to reduce nutrition-related risk factors for chronic disease by establishing collaborative partnerships to conduct community assessments to determine need and evaluate the program’s impact, create and influence local policy, improve access to healthy nutrition sources, and improve Rogers County population’s knowledge and behaviors related to making healthier choices.