Agenda - 12-09-1995 - Attachment 2

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1 HUMAN SERVICES CONSUMER INVOLVEMENT GOAL: DEVELOP A CONSUMER INVOLVEMENT MECHANISM FOR HUMAN SERVICES PROGRAM PLANNING. OBJECTIVE: To develop a strategy to identify health problems in the community and develop strategies to reduce them by using a community-based approach. STATUS REPORT The Board of Commissioners, at their meeting of October 18, 1994, approved the establishment of the Orange County Healthy Carolinians Task Force as recommended by the Board of Health. At the Goals and Objectives Retreat on December 10, 1994, the Commissioners agreed to endorse the goal. Since that time an Adhoc Steering Committee representing the Health Department, UNC Hospitals and the UNC-CH School of Public Health, has explored alternatives for implementing the task force. Experience in other North Carolina counties has shown that the task force is more successful when a core group of community leaders have endorsed the approach before the larger task force is appointed. This change and staff shortages resulted in the initial meeting being postponed until August 28, 1995. At that time, selected information from the Health Department Community Diagnosis was presented in a manner similar to the State of the Local Economy by the Economic Development Commission. This core group endorsed the process, and recommended additional members be appointed. On October 2, 1995,the Commissioners approved of a plan for the Health Department to join UNC Hospitals in contracting with the UNC-CH School of Public Health to conduct the Community Health Assessment and coordinate the Healthy Carolinians Task Force. The initial meeting of the Healthy Carolinians Task Force was held on October 19, 1995. The Health Department's Community Diagnosis was presented, the multi-faceted methods of community health assessment were reviewed and the members present agreed to participate in the process of prioritizing health problems and planning potential solutions. A variety of community health assessment methods,including secondary data analysis, surveys and focus groups are being planned, and the task force will reconvene in the Spring to review the results. The full task force will focus on priority issues and divide into sub-committees which will assess health status data,existing resources and recommend strategies which emphasize health promotion and disease prevention rather than treatment and funding issues. Periodic reports and final recommendations will be presented to the Board of Commissioners and the Board of Health.