Feb. 25, 2015 @ 12:01 AM

HUNTINGTON - One small step forward.

That's what the Cabell-Huntington Health Department's new initiative, Regional Health Connect, hopes to help the community do as it pertains to improving the health of local people.

The group met for its second time on Tuesday at the health department's 7th Avenue facility, with representatives from various segments of the community sitting in to learn more details about where the community stands healthwise and weigh in on some solutions.

"We either seek to fix this problem or we pass it on to our children," said Tim Hazelett, administrator for the Cabell-Huntington Health Department.

Tuesday's presenter was health statistics guru David Campbell, chief executive officer of the West Virginia Health Improvement Institute and the Community Health Network of West Virginia.

He discussed everything from West Virginia's most prevalent health issues - obesity, smoking, high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, lack of exercise - as well as the rise in health care costs, and the drivers and the distribution of health care costs. He also discussed the problems with health care delivery that drive up costs and some efforts being made by providers to rein in costs.

"We need a different model, a different way to deliver health care and a different way to engage people in their health," Campbell said.

The West Virginia Health Improvement Institute reports that 35 percent of West Virginia adults are relatively healthy with no ongoing health needs. Fifteen percent are relatively healthy now but at risk of developing a chronic condition, 25 percent have a chronic condition, 20 percent will have two to four chronic conditions, 4 percent have five or more chronic conditions and 1 percent has catastrophic illness.

While Appalachian culture leads to some predisposition to hypertension and other chronic conditions, other factors play a part, such as income and access to health care.

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Speaker: Health care solution requires all