“Oxford County has made important strides in expanding the focus on health and wellbeing and tackling upstream drivers (e.g., ACEs, nutrition) of some of the county’s health issues in mental health, substance use, and obesity.”
—RAND Corporation
RWJF Culture of Health 5-Year Community Landscape Report: Oxford County, Maine
Report Apr-01-2022 3-min read
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Report Publish Date: April 2022
This report summarizes Oxford County, Maine’s health, wellbeing, and equity journey from 2016 to 2021, as part of RWJF’s Sentinel Communities Surveillance project.
Primary Takeaways
Oxford County is a large rural region with limited capacity to improve health and wellbeing for its residents. A small group of dedicated individuals and external funding have helped the county broadly address social determinants of health. The county has also seen strong cross-sector collaborations, which grew stronger over the course of the study, the authors say.
The county has many grassroots initiatives, funded by federal, state, and local government. The community is focused on substance abuse, adverse childhood experiences, and mental health.
Overview and Objectives
Begun in 2016, RWJF’s Sentinel Communities Surveillance project tracks how a Culture of Health is developing in 29 communities across the country. The authors wanted to describe key challenges, opportunities, and insights in Oxford County.
Hypothesis or Approach
For this report, the authors conducted 31 hourlong, semi-structured interviews between early 2018 and winter 2022. Interviewees came from several different types of organizations and sectors.
How This Influences Change
“As Oxford County attempts to bring organizations outside of health to the table to discuss and invest in health and wellbeing, it will be important to understand what is motivating those organizations to engage and what will sustain those efforts, such that the responsibility for health actions locally does not continue to rest on a few individuals,” the authors write. “Other communities facing similar challenges as Oxford County with respect to an individualistic mindset, stigma around seeking support, and considerable concerns about economic inequity will benefit from reviewing how Oxford County is actively addressing those issues and working to expand the discussion of health and wellbeing.”
Research: Go Deeper
Oxford County has benefited from the efforts of local health organizations, which implement initiatives to improve the wellbeing of County residents, with a particular set of actions advanced by a small group of dedicated health leaders. The community is also supported by a network of local nonprofits and various external investments. The community has begun to observe positive outcomes from long-standing initiatives, particularly around obesity and nutrition. In addition, recent initiatives have been implemented around mental health, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and substance abuse. Building from the work that the community has done over the past five years to identify priority health issues, there is a deeper focus on the root causes of health, more adoption of a social determinants of health framework, and more efforts to address stigma related to such topics such as substance use. While the community has grown its capacity for data collection with respect to health, the community still faces barriers with its overall capacity within the health sector and the integration of systems, particularly in the context of concerns about economic equity and a rural and aging population. Leaders within the health sector have begun to turn their focus toward health equity over the past five years. Yet, conversations around health equity have remained mostly non-existent among community members across the County as economic conditions and the associated issue of isolation are predominant and links between the economy and health are slowly evolving.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, April 2022
Research Team
This study and report was conducted and created by the following people.
- RAND Corporation
Similar Research to Explore
Sentinel Communities—Learning and Insights
Browse the profiles of a diverse group of 30 communities who are committed to improving the health and wellbeing of their residents.
Oxford County, Maine
Oxford County boasts a sprawling natural landscape with a population density of 26 people per square mile.
Sentinel Communities Library
A library of research and perspectives about Sentinel Communities, 30 diverse communities around the country.