The sudden, unexpected, ever changing, and unpredictable COVID-19 pandemic made it very challenging to accomplish our goals set in our CHIPs. The last year, our CHIPS/SOTCH work was put on hold. No Partnership for Health Meetings, no direct work on our goals outlined in our CHIPS, and although it has been a rough year and many of our partners scope of work was shifted, I am proud of our program for: 

• Adopting Results-Based Accountability
• Transitioning CHIPS from paper-based to web-based documents
• Setting up results, indicators, programs, and performance measures in Clear Impact Scorecard
• Linking to the HNC 2030 Scorecard to create greater awareness of population accountability

COVID-19 has however impacted morbidity and mortality rates in Lincoln County like it has in other North Carolina Counties. Lincoln County currently reports a total of 8,638 COVID cases. 8,379 of these cases have recovered and 76 of these cases are reported deaths. In regards to identified deaths for Lincoln County, 33 are related to congregate care facilities.

Alcohol Use

Binge drinking has been shown to have negative effects on the body and mental state, and lead to an increased likelihood of alcohol-related unintentional injuries and death. In 2018, 17.1% of NC Region 4 BRFSS respondents indicated that they have binge drank in the past (even once), compared to 14.8% of NC (NC BRFSS, 2018). The percentage of Region 4 BRFSS and NC respondents reporting binge drinking (even once) has increased for 2018.(BRFSS, 2018). This reported increase of binge drinking regionally and at the state level indicates a need for improved education and prevention strategies regarding the negative consequences associated with alcohol abuse and binge drinking.

Personal Preparedness

According to structural fire data provided by the Lincoln County Fire Marshal’s Office, smoke detectors were present 55% of the time and operated correctly 84% of the time between 2017 and 2019 in Lincoln County. These numbers indicate a need for increased awareness and education regarding the importance of having a functional smoke detector in homes and businesses. 2019 CHO Survey respondents indicated that they were 68.5% likely to have both smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors in their homes, while 28.9% indicated that they only had smoke detectors in their homes. Between 2017 and 2019, there were 12 injuries and 5 casualties reported from fire related calls from all 12 fire departments in Lincoln County. Lincoln County fire departments have participated in Smoke Alarm Saturday, which is held on the first Saturday in June, in recent years. Smoke Alarm Saturday is a North Carolina Department of Insurance Initiative out of the Office of the State Fire Marshal that aims to provide free smoke alarms to Lincoln County residents who need them. The Smoke Alarm Saturday Initiative hopes to increase the number of working smoke alarms in homes and decrease the number of injuries and casualties from fire related calls, because even 1 death that could potentially be prevented is too many.

Health Services

55.13% of 2019 CHO Survey respondents believe there is good healthcare in Lincoln County when considering the cost, quality, and availability of healthcare in the county. A majority of respondents believe the service most needing improvement in Lincoln County is culturally appropriate health services.

Substance Abuse:

· The Lincoln County Partnership for Health chose to focus on two initiatives to positively impact the Substance Abuse strategy.

Þ Continuing Initiative: Medication disposal

             *The purpose of this intervention is for local pharmacies to install drug disposal boxes in their

             facilities for customers to safely dispose of needles and syringes.

Þ New Initiative: CATCH My Breath Curriculum

Emergency Preparedness:

· The Lincoln County Partnership for Health chose to focus on two initiatives to positively impact the Emergency Preparedness strategy.

Þ Continuing Initiative: Smoke Alarm Saturday

Þ New Initiative: Reporting System

*The purpose of this intervention is to develop a reporting system that providers like EMS, DSS, etc. could

Notify the fire department of the need for smoke detectors in specific households.

Health Services:

· The Lincoln County Partnership for Health chose to focus on two initiatives to positively impact the Health Services strategy.

Þ Continuing Initiative: Parks Rx intervention program.

* The purpose of this intervention is to increase the number of providers that prescribe their patients Park Rx prescriptions to encourage healthy outdoor activity, healthful eating and improve overall wellness to   positively impact chronic disease conditions (verses using prescription medications, when appropriate).

Þ New Initiative: Preventive Health screening opportunities

The Lincoln County Partnership for Health and the Lincoln County Board of Health chose and approved the initiatives that are being used to address the 2019 Community Health Assessment priorities.  Action plans were submitted to the state of NC in July 2020.