The rankings are gone, but the push for improvement remains for the Healthy Blair County Coalition.

At the coalition’s annual meeting Monday, coalition leaders shared details of the once-every-three-years community needs assessment survey conducted last year.

That assessment no longer leads to a ranking among Pennsylvania counties for overall health, because the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute that operates the assessment program nationally has given up the rankings in favor of grouping similar counties, so they can easily collaborate on solutions to common problems, according to the institute.

While the Blair coalition can’t brag as in the past sometimes about moving up in the Pennsylvania rankings, it still has a list of problems to deal with — one that doesn’t look much different from previous iterations.

Mental health issues, obesity, substance use disorder; smoking and vaping among youth; poverty and employment problems; and housing issues were among the priorities collectively expressed by survey participants.

Standing committees of the coalition deal with those issues separately.

The Mental Health Workgroup has supported the Blair County Suicide Prevention Task Force and has conducted a Light it Up Green campaign to increase mental health awareness. The workgroup’s upcoming efforts will include establishment of and advocacy for programs to help families deal with mental health issues more effectively and to help community members identify individuals at risk of suicide.

The Nourish Blair Committee has conducted webinars and Zoom meetings to educate families about nutrition; has helped distribute fresh produce to participants in a dental services program; and has helped provide cooking demonstrations for needy households. The committee plans to increase community interest in its Food Sustainability Day; create a speaker series; establish community gardens; and develop a food resource guide.

The Alliance for Nicotine Free Communities has identified and supported policies and programs that promote a smoke-free community and has conducted a Vaping Summit to educate young people and the community on the dangers.

The Youth Connection has initiated a program called “Let’s Move into Kindness” to counter bullying. It plans to continue that campaign and to rebuild partnerships with local school districts to combat absenteeism.

The Get Active Blair County committee has initiated activity challenges, originally inspired by a Michelle Obama initiative. It is planning walking and other fitness activities and hopes to help integrate health and wellness into “every aspect of community life.”

The Substance Abuse & Physical Health Committee initiated a round-the-clock protocol for substance use disorder patients at hospital emergency departments and pregnancy clinics, so that they can go immediately into drug rehabilitation, and it has embedded a certified recovery specialist at UPMC Altoona and Penn Highlands Tyrone to help ensure that behavioral health patients upon discharge won’t need to be readmitted anytime soon. It hopes to enhance collaboration between behavioral and physical health providers in the area and to promote routine screening for substance use disorder during routine health care encounters.

In general, the committees have been evaluating what they should keep doing, what they should tweak or adjust, what they should stop doing and what they should start doing “to fill the gaps,” said Donna Gority, a member of the coalition executive committee — which also includes Marcus Edwards of the Altoona Blair County Development Corp. and Tricia Johnson, director of the Blair County Department of Social Services.

Last year’s survey included mailings to 3,010 randomly selected households, which netted just 237 responses, according to coalition co-director Billie Kochara.

It’s likely that last year’s inundation of election-related mail was responsible for the poor return, Kochara said.

There were also responses generated by a survey form on the coalition website and survey questionnaires sent to community and business leaders, social service providers and faith-based organizations — along with surveys conducted by a dozen social service agencies and health care providers.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.