XENIA — Greene County Public Health (GCPH) has released its 2016 Annual Report to the Community.

The report provides information on program successes, an organizational financial report, and clinical statistics from 2016.

In Melissa Branum’s address to the community, the Greene County Health Commissioner highlighted different aspects of the year’s growth, focusing on how 160,000 residents are served every day.

“For many years, our community has had pockets of un-insured and under-insured individuals struggling to get and maintain health insurance, and to have adequate medical and dental care. Through grant writing, collaboration, and teamwork, the health district was instrumental in securing grant dollars that will bring new and expanded healthcare services for well and ill people in 2017,” Branum wrote in the report.

Other highlights Branum noted include the continued construction of the new facility, which is anticipated to be finished late this year or early 2018. The health district continued to provide education and prevention for diseases such as Zika and Tuberculosis, and implemented a new program for senior adults to achieve better balance and prevent fewer falls.

GCPH reached other milestones as well, including receiving funding from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to supply local law enforcement — Beavercreek, Cedarville, Xenia and Yellow Springs — with a total of 93 Naloxone (NARCAN) kits. NARCAN is an opioid overdose reversal medication.

One program success includes the Baby & Me Tobacco Free program, which provided 185 prenatal and postpartum sessions for mothers-to-be and family members.

“Participants in the program are asked to take part in four brief prenatal smoking sessions; set a quit date and stay quit during their pregnancy; agree to take a monthly breath test to show that they are tobacco-free; and stay smoke free after their baby is born,” the annual report reads.

A large part of GCPH’s mission is based on educating the public, including children and schools. The public health authority provided weekend meal bags to Greeneview students, offered classroom garden kits to Shawnee Elementary School and Fairborn Primary School, and supported the Greene County High School Seat Belt Challenges.

Public information is also shared through social media, press releases, media engagements, health fairs and special community events — like this year’s baby shower, drug forum and immunization collaborative.

Community members can also check out the full report for the year’s financial facts — detailing revenues and expenses — and also for birth and death statistics, health services by the numbers, and to learn about other programs GCPH offers.

To obtain a copy of the report, go to www.gcph.info. Hard copies of the report will also be available at the main office, 360 Wilson Drive and the Fairborn WIC office at 600 Pierce Drive beginning the week of April 3. Additional copies of the report will also be distributed in limited quantities to some township, city and county offices, libraries, social service agencies and some doctor’s offices.

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By Anna Bolton

[email protected]

Reach Anna Bolton at 937-502-4498.