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For public health departments in Appalachia Ohio, resources and staff are often stretched to the max. In addition to serving local communities, the state of Ohio requires each health department to compile a Community Health Assessment (CHA) and a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) every three years and to maintain accreditation with the Public Health Accreditation Board.

Health department officials often turn to outside vendors to help compile the required data, interpret it, and recommend courses of action.

Since the pandemic, most vendors conduct research from afar, but what separates the Planning, Evaluation, Education, and Research (PEER) Applied Research Team at 51����’s is a personal touch that lends itself to a greater understanding of the issues counties face.

The PEER team offers a comprehensive suite of services to support health departments throughout the CHA and CHIP process. These services include project management, collection of primary data through community-wide surveys and focus group interviews, gathering and analysis of secondary data from state and national sources, data interpretation, report writing, stakeholder engagement facilitation, and guidance on evidence-based practices and health improvement models.

The Lawrence County Health Department hired the Voinovich School’s PEER team to facilitate the development of the county’s CHIP for 2024-27. Dr. Tammy Kahrig and other PEER staff conducted extensive on-site discussions with administrators, county officials and private sector partners.

“There’s no substitute for face-to-face meetings,” says Debbie Fisher, the administrator for the Lawrence County Health Department. “Tammy and her team were extremely patient and helpful, and they put together an amazing report that we’re using as a foundation to address our biggest needs.”

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Lawrence County’s issues are consistent with the rest of Southeast Ohio: substance abuse and mental illness for both adults and children, and the overall obesity rate.

“Lawrence County’s averages were consistently higher than the state’s and in the U.S. overall,” Kahrig says. “One of the ways that we address community needs is to identify evidence-based strategies that have been proven to make a difference and share that information with the health departments and their community partners.”

For Lawrence County, those programs include the , which works to reduce the stigma around mental illness and teen suicide, and the smoking/vaping cessation program , which communities have utilized to help students stay in school via diversion programs rather than just being suspended or expelled for drug violations.

The Voinovich School PEER team has worked with several other counties in Southeast Ohio, and a word-of-mouth referral from Fisher has led to work for Portsmouth and Scioto County, among others.

“I’ve recommended Tammy and the PEER group to everyone that will listen,” says Fisher. “They took so much time and care in their research and wrote a fantastic report. There’s no question that I’d hire them again for 2027 and beyond.”

“It is inspiring to see like-minded community members who want to make a difference come together through the CHA and CHIP process and work collaboratively to try to make an impact,” says Kahrig. “At the Voinovich School, our work is rooted in partnership—helping communities, agencies, and organizations build capacity, develop leadership, and improve the quality of life for Ohioans. Through the PEER team’s support, we aim to strengthen local systems and empower counties to address their most pressing health challenges more effectively.”