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MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH June 23, 2010 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Anne Miles Cassell 5 June 23, 2010 area. Ms. Gentry stated that they would like to train with every law enforcement agency and then start training with the fire departments because as the plan evolves, the fire departments will be a bigger player. The Chair also asked what sort of progress has been made in reaching the at-risk groups. Ms. Gentry replied that communications with Emergency Management has determined that Social Services would be the best source to begin identification of those with special needs and further study will be done. Rosemary Summers stated that Emergency Management would be the most likely to be responsible for the special needs individuals rather than the Health Department. Steve Yuhasz asked what method of alert notification is followed for public officials. Rosemary Summers stated that EMS would be the one to make the decision on the level of alert and would then coordinate the contact efforts. D. Social Justice Goal Implications In 2005 a student group approached the Board of Health about sponsoring a “health care as a social justice” goal with the county. The Board discussed the proposal and determined that this was broader than the scope of the Board’s expertise and authority and encouraged the students to approach the Human Rights and Relations Commission. Over the intervening years, the Human Rights Commission has worked on crafting a social justice goal that reflects Orange County residents’ values. The Board of Commissioners has discussed several versions of the goal, most recently this past spring. From that discussion, it appears that this goal is reaching completion and may be acted on by Commissioners this fall. A draft was provided for Board of Health members so that they could discuss the implications of the material in the goal for the future work of the health department. Discussion by the Board for future directions could be included in the strategic plan that will be updated in 2011. Christopher Cooke asked Steve Yuhasz if he thought the Commissioners were planning to act on the Social Justice Proposal this fall. Commissioner Yuhasz stated that a presentation had been given to the BOCC a month ago however he said he did not know if the Commissioners were planning any action on it at this time, however, there had not been any opportunity for discussion. Christopher Cooke also stated that he found it ironic that the group came to the Board of Health to talk about health equity and when looking at the Social Justice Goal there is little or no mention of health. Without looking at Appendix A and Appendix B which is a complete explanation of the data that was collected, it is hard to know why they organized the different elements of social justice the way they did. Looking at it without any of that information the first reaction is where is the health goal and why health, shelter, clothing, or food are subsumed under economic self-sufficiency. He stated that health should be as important as safety or elimination of oppression. Rosemary Summers explained that when the group first approached the BOH they were interested in health equity more on a global scale in terms of things they felt made up