What happens when leaders from the public and private sector sit down and talk about community wellness?

Real change begins to happen. A recent study completed by United Healthcare Foundation found Indiana ranked 38th, or no change from 2010. Trends cite smoking as the greatest health challenge of the past 20 years and indicate that obesity is likely to be the next national health battle.  Diabetes is increasing rapidly in the U.S. adversely affecting the quality of life and increasing the cost of health care.

Based on the 2011 County Health Rankings, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, ranked Delaware County 81 out of 92 counties in respect to the health of our citizens.

Why are these rankings important?

It equates into higher dollars spent on healthcare – real costs paid for healthcare services, and increased premiums paid for health insurance. Due to less public sector dollars available, IU Health BMH Hospital has less dollars to treat high patient demand for health services.

It also means corporations have to pay higher insurance premiums to cover their employees, and will have to pass along higher costs to employees, and/or increase prices for goods and services. In the worse case scenario, they might find it too costly to provide health insurance thus terminating benefits shifting 100% of the burden to the employee.

As a community, we cannot shift the blame to corporations and insurance companies. The statistics show the we smoke too much, drink too much, eat too much of the wrong foods, and don’t exercise enough. Our poor rankings aren’t only for adults, but our kids too. Over 36% of children are considered overweight, and juvenile diabetes has become all too prevalent among our teen population.

Companies looking for new headquarters and corporate expansions are looking more closely at the health of the communities they are moving into due to the rising healthcare costs. This does not present a good scenario for a State ranked 38 out of 50, and looks even worse for a county ranking 81 out of 92 within the state ranked 38th.

If our community wants to compete for new jobs, and keep existing jobs, in this highly competitive marketplace, we have to become more attractive to companies. We have to improve our health rankings. That’s why leaders like Steve Tomboni of Muncie Multi-Sport (MMS) and Eric Jones of Muncie Power Products assembled a group of public and private sector leaders to announce the 2012 Muncie Mini-Marathon Event scheduled for October 27th which will start and finish in downtown Muncie at Canan Commons. They are looking for the community to rally around this event as a “culmination of our community fitness goals.”

Delaware County’s Wellness Coordinator, Nancy Larson, sees this as, “A compliment to our current plan offering county employees a wellness program to improve their fitness and well-being.”

Jay Julian sees the benefits of a more active and fit community for Muncie-Delaware County Chamber members. Gerry Cyranowski from Meridian Services focused on the benefits to his employees and the positive impact on the community, “Improving the health and well-being of employees is a worthy investment by employers – both the employer and employee receive a benefit. It takes our existing wellness screenings one step further by implementing a program of action.”

We expect to see more than just lofty aspirations and ideals from these community leaders. Active steps are underway by several entities, and more are moving from the conceptual phase to implementation. Muncie Voice will be covering their stories in the coming weeks.

If you would like to be placed on a mailing list for further updates on wellness information within Muncie and Delaware County, please complete our contact form on this website, or send an email to muncievoice@gmail.com.

Also, we will be utilizing our calendar page for easy reference to update and post local and regional fitness related events.

Eric Jones, Brand Manager of Muncie Power Products and Ryan Morris of Muncie Multi-Sport, created the following short video of the 2011 Muncie Mini-Marathon held in October with the new slogan for MMS – “Life Changing Finishing Lines”: