Think of LincolnHealth’s Strategic Plan for 2017 through 2019 as a to-do list and it sounds impossible. It includes addressing childhood obesity and diabetes, fighting opioid abuse and addiction and improving behavioral health.

What makes it possible, says LincolnHealth Executive Vice President Cindy Wade, RN, is the help of community partners like local police and sheriff’s departments, Central Lincoln County and Boothbay Region YMCAs, Healthy Lincoln County, Midcoast Hospital Addiction Resource Center and the Boothbay Region Community Resources Council.

For example, a partnership to prevent diabetes calls for LincolnHealth to do what it does best; identifying people who are in danger of developing diabetes and helping them access the medical and educational services they need.

Other partners, such as the Central Lincoln County and Boothbay Region YMCAs, will do what they do best, like offering great programs to help people at risk of diabetes improve their activity level and nutrition.

“Our goal right along has been to bridge gaps not duplicate resources. We want to be as efficient with our resources as possible and that is where the partnerships are very important to us,” said Wade.

Partnerships are critical because many of the county’s most serious health problems, such as drug addiction or childhood obesity, are difficult to address with traditional medical tools.

By working with partners in the community, however, LincolnHealth can help not only improve the health of the population, but also keep healthcare costs down.

To address the opiate epidemic, LincolnHealth is working with a task force that includes local law enforcement agencies and Mid Coast Hospital to reduce the number of opiate overdoses and expand access to addiction treatment options.

Opened just last year, the WISE Program (Wellness Independence in a Supportive Environment), at the Coulombe Center for Health Improvement in Boothbay Harbor, offers supportive programs for adults 40 or older with long-term mental health needs.

That program is part of a new emphasis on mental health at LincolnHealth that includes redesigning Lincoln Medical Partner practices to make more high-quality services available in the same building where people see their doctor, including pharmacists, educators and behavioral health counselors.

In addition to offering the WISE Program, the Coulombe Center also works with other Boothbay area organizations to help ensure all children have access to healthy food.

While LincolnHealth does not have the resources of larger medical centers it does have strong community connections, said Wade.

And, as a member of MaineHealth, the largest integrated medical network in Maine, LincolnHealth has access to proven medical resources that are already making the county healthier.

Lincoln County was the fifth healthiest county in Maine last year, with relatively low rates of death due to coronary heart disease and colorectal cancer, according to the 2015 MaineHealth Health Index Report.

LincolnHealth has also met a number of goals over the last year that were designed to make the county healthier, significantly increasing childhood immunization, decreasing preventable hospitalizations and decreasing tobacco use.

Reaching those goals involved using the clinical resources available through MaineHealth and partnerships with community organizations.

For example, LincolnHealth has among the lowest levels of hospital readmissions in the state in part because patients are discharged with follow-up care plans already in place. Both hospital providers and community providers can access those plans in real time through MaineHealth’s SeHR (Shared Electronic Health Record) system.

Once patients are back home in the community, partnerships with community organizations like Spectrum Generations, help insure those patients who can’t shop or cook for themselves, have the resources they need to recover safely.

Through the 5-2-1-0 Let’s Go!, an obesity prevention program developed by MaineHealth, LincolnHealth is working with Lincoln County schools, childcare facilities and other organizations to encourage children to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day, have 2 hours or less of recreational screen time, be physically active for an hour or more and drink 0 sugary drinks.

“By preventing childhood obesity, we can have a huge impact on health going forward,” said Wade.