Healthcare Summit Held

Health­care providers and local offi­cials from across north­west Ohio attended a health-care sum­mit Mon­day at the Hilton Gar­den Inn in Per­rys­burg to share strate­gies for bat­tling health issues local com­mu­ni­ties are fac­ing.

About 175 par­tic­i­pants from area health depart­ments and hos­pi­tal sys­tems, along with rep­re­sen­ta­tives from non­prof­its and busi­nesses showed up to share infor­ma­tion about pro­grams that have worked and to learn about new tools.

Many of the region’s health issues were brought to light, includ­ing issues sur­round­ing men­tal health, and espe­cially among youth.

In Williams County, 15 per­cent of youth reported con­tem­plat­ing sui­cide in a 2013 sur­vey. Other area coun­ties had youth sui­cide con­tem­pla­tion rates between 9 and 14 percent.