Since an emphasis on wellness began in 2014, Lake County has seen improvement. That year it ranked last.
Mortality tends to skew wellness rankings for the county. Statistically, fewer residents live past the age of 75 than in counties rated healthier. Jen believes this is best addressed through basics: attention to health care and to healthy lifestyles.
There are eight impact areas she has identified that could affect an area’s health and wellness and one of the biggest challenges for Lake County is economics. Lake County is one of the poorest in California. Research suggests a close relationship between poverty, health and life span.
Kenneth Parlet said one of the wellness issues he notices in Lake County after being in the grocery business his whole life is the lack of healthy eating habits.
“What really pains me more than anything in the world is the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program, which pumps out billions of gallons of soda pop like juices and tons of worthless cereals that they give away for free once you become a mother,” Parlet said.
He added that since there have been so many mixed messages on what is healthy and what is not, many do not have an idea on which direction to take when it comes to eating well. This helps account for the low rankings.
Jen said the next steps for the a Lake County Wellness Road Map Project will be to organize town halls around the county and get more people involved in the project. The goal would be to gather community input.
“We have a lot of grass top participation and not a lot of grass roots,” Jen said. “We need the whole blade to make a difference.”
