As we told you earlier this week, Guthrie County Public Health is in the process of conducting their Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA). The CHNA is a county-wide study, which ultimately comes up with the greatest overall health issues. Last time around, a major issue was childhood diabetes. Guthrie County’s Health Administrator Jotham Arber says it’s a community effort to improve overall health. “So, we’ve gone to schools, they have the information they need. The school nurses know about it, they can identify signs, and notify parents. We’ve talked with physicians, so when they’re screening children, so they can work with children, or send them to us so we can help them get the services they need. That’s exactly what we’ll be doing this time around, looking at childhood diabetes, obesity and COPD, which is big in the County, probably because of the farming that’s done.”

Arber says he would like to focus more on health issues related to farming in Guthrie County, notably mentioning COPD, and skin cancer in relation to prolonged and unprotected sun exposure.