Rowan County leaders consider needs cited in assessment

SALISBURY — The UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health has identified Rowan County’s top needs as housing and homelessness; violent crime; child abuse and neglect; transportation to essential health and human services; employment and workforce readiness; access to health care; healthy lifestyle behaviors; substance use; and mental health. Last month, community leaders and representatives…

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Rowan Helping Ministries to open eastern campus

SALISBURY — Rowan Helping Ministries is expanding eastward thanks to a partnership with St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Rockwell. The church, off St. Peter’s Church Road, will host a Saturday food pantry under the auspices of Rowan Helping Ministries beginning in late October. “It’s a great opportunity,” said Kyna Grubb, executive director of the agency.…

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Rowan County receives Novant Health’s Corporate Cup

SALISBURY — Dari Caldwell, president of Novant Health Rowan Medical Center, on Monday presented the Rowan County commissioners with what she called “something wonderful.” The something was the 2018 Corporate Cup, which Caldwell explained. “It is a trophy to commemorate the organization that, in that year, did the most … to improve the health of…

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Rowan County Commissioners vote for smoke-free parks

SALISBURY — After a long push from local health organizations, the Rowan County Commissioners voted Monday to make parks tobacco-free. The new regulation bans traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes, vaping devices and other uses of tobacco in all county parks, recreation buildings and recreation grounds. Previously, smoking was prohibited only in designated areas or “any part of…

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Spirit of Rowan: Healthy Rowan moves forward

Just a few years ago, Rowan County’s health outcomes could best be described as “dismal.” According to County Health Rankings, Rowan ranked 76th out of 100 counties in health outcomes in 2014 and had lower health outcome rates than all of its neighbors But with the help of the community coalition Healthy Rowan, the winds…

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Rowan County Public Health releases State of the County Health report

SALISBURY — Rowan County Public Health this week released its annual State of the County Health Report. The report describes health issues and summarizes local efforts and progress toward addressing health priorities. In 2015, the Rowan County Health Department conducted a Community Health Assessment in partnership with Novant Health Rowan Medical Center. The assessment identified health priorities as tobacco use, prescription…

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Editorial: Strive for health equity

  Rowan County has made remarkable strides recently in addressing health issues, rising from 73rd to 62nd in health outcomes calculated by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Compared to the state’s 99 other counties on medical care, access to healthy food and exercise, housing, education and jobs,…

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Despite improvements, disparities remain in Rowan health outcomes

SALISBURY — Rowan County is now rated 62nd in terms of health outcomes among North Carolina’s 100 counties. In 2017, Rowan was listed at No. 73, meaning the county has improved in a variety of factors that increase both length and quality of life. The findings come from the ninth annual County Health Rankings, released…

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Healthy Rowan teams up for Community Health Assessment

SALISBURY — Whenever Healthy Rowan Executive Director Alyssa Smith does presentations, people ask why Rowan County is ranked 73 in county health rankings. “What is it about Rowan County that makes it different from other counties around us that are healthier?” Smith asked. “With this data, we’ll get to the roots of why.” The “data”…

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