LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Ever wonder what really matters to people? Focus groups are one way to find out.

The “Climb to the Peak of Health” project is working toward bettering community health by looking at ways to support emotional well-being, reduce tobacco use, encourage healthy eating and increase physical activity.

About 12 focus groups, representing a cross-section of the community, were conducted to help create messaging about these topics.

Focus groups were asked about the kind of health ads that typically get attention. For many, they recalled the women smoker who had her larynx removed and was continuing to smoke through her stoma, or the ad about the fried egg being compared to your brain on drugs.

It was significant that while people found these ads to be memorable and attention-getting, in most cases they didn’t seem to think they actually led to making a behavior change.

The general consensus was that effective messaging is positive, to the point, and offers readily available, do-able action steps.

For quitting tobacco, folks can easily access California’s 1-800-NO-BUTTS helpline, where a live, knowledgeable person will provide support and coaching to assist in quitting the habit. People in the focus groups who quit smoking this way found it to be very helpful.

The group’s comments on creating messaging about emotional well-being were varied. We all know there’s a strong relationship between emotional and physical health, but how do we talk about some of the deep, lasting emotional impacts on children when they live with maltreatment or chronically chaotic environments in which addictions and absentee parenting prevail?

As comments from the focus groups were tallied, a common theme on emotional well-being emerged-- how we treat each other really matters, and kindness counts.

Emotional well-being begins in the family circle with the quality of relationship between parent-child, husband-wife, partners, grandparents, extended family, and it continues beyond family relationships to friendships, relationships with co-workers, within organizational culture, student-teacher, parent-teacher relationships, within our extracurricular activities.

In short, each and every interaction we have is an opportunity to support (or not) emotional wellness.

In keeping with the focus group directives to shape messages that are positive, on point, and with immediate action steps, kindness counts messaging was crafted as a platform on which to continue building. Kindness was seen as a fundamental ingredient in treating one another with understanding, dignity, and respect.

A few examples of action steps include: encourage someone today, count to 30 and think about your words, give away at least 3 hugs today, be an outstanding friend, smile and laugh more than you can count, help a senior do yard work, and parents are memory makers—make memories your children will cherish.

The overarching goal of Climb to the Peak of Health is reduction of chronic health conditions. Lake County currently ranks at the bottom of California’s 58 counties for poorest health due to death from all causes.

That statistic results from a number of unfavorable health factors, such as being in the bottom five counties for deaths from lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, and suicide.

These statistics can be attention-getting.

Smoking contributes to lung cancer and heart disease. Recent studies also show a relationship between smoking and depression. Before the addictive properties of nicotine became well known, medical providers prescribed nicotine as an anti-depressant.

Poor emotional health can also contribute to heart disease as well as substance use, suicide and myriad other conditions. The 1-800-NO-BUTTS number is a resource anyone can use to quit smoking. Taking small steps to treat each other with kindness is a way that everyone can boost emotional well-being.

Recent media coverage about Lake County's poor health profile highlights how community organizations are responding to the crisis, now it's time for all of us – the actual community – to step forward.

If each one of us joins together to take that first step, we can all begin climbing to the peak of health to better our community health as a whole.

Speaking of taking steps, stay tuned; a countywide Climb to the Peak of Health activity challenge is in the works. How about a community march for wellness as a way to take that first step together?

For more information about Climb to the Peak of Health, visit www.climbtothepeakofhealth.org or www.facebook.com/climbtothepeakofhealth .