Indiana ranks 38^th in the nation for overall health.  Indiana healthcare representatives are trying to change that.  Through a group called The Alliance For a Healthier Indiana, they’re trying to educate Hoosiers about healthy lifestyles.  As IPR’s Zoe Dwiggins reports, the group brought the message to Delaware County Wednesday.

Brian Tabor is the Indiana Hospital Association president and a member of the Alliance.  He says Indiana ranks low on the nationwide health scale because the state also ranks 49^th in public health funding.

“I think you can look at that and say, to some degree, you get what you pay for.  This is a decades-long problem, and we simply need to reinvest across the entire state more in our public health infrastructure and prevention.”

Muncie Democratic state representative Sue Errington agrees.

“That’s an area where we must improve.  As a state legislator, that’s something I’m going to be pushing.  Let’s improve our funding for public health.”

While the group highlights specific health problems Indiana faces – such as tobacco use, opioid abuse, obesity, and infant mortality – and ways to prevent these issues, Tabor says the central purpose of the Alliance and its events is to raise a general awareness about the importance of health.

“What I would ask everyone to do is really just help raise awareness.  Use social media, talk to their neighbors, talk to other community leaders, and make health as important to our state as road infrastructure or economic development or education.”

Many speakers involved in the presentation stressed the importance of “whole person health,” stating that people need to take care of not just their physical health, but their mental, emotional, and social health as well.