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Health Director’s Report <br />October, 2015 <br /> <br />• Board of Health Priorities <br />o Thanks to Coby’s great leadership we hosted a statewide Tobacco Control Sustainability Workshop that <br />included local, state and national leaders in tobacco control. I gave a brief presentation on raising the <br />legal sale age of tobacco to 21 and it became quite clear that we need to keep educating and advocating <br />for this item. <br />o I’ve had great preliminary conversations with key stakeholders about our proposed syringe exchange <br />pilot program. I look forward to our sub-committee meeting this week and the full discussion by the <br />Board in January. <br />• Various <br />o We had a great visit by Rick Brajer, Secretary of Health and Human Services. It was his first visit to a <br />local health department and we had 40 minutes of his undivided attention. He was joined by his Deputy <br />Secretary, Dr. Randall Williams, who back in the late 90’s did a rotation through the Health Department. <br />I think both enjoyed their visit, learned a lot and were glad they invested the time. <br />o The County Manager has created “Functional Leadership Teams” to encourage collaboration among <br />related tasks across departments and our key partners. The Health Department has been assigned to <br />two of these teams, “Public Safety” and “Human Services and Education”. This week I have two, four- <br />hour goal setting meetings, so I should be able to report-out about what our joint work together will <br />entail after that. <br />o Last night I attended the CHA community listening session at the Hillsborough Hospital. It was relatively <br />well attended and the participants brought new energy and enthusiasm to these discussions. I’ve heard <br />from Ashley that there has been good Board of Health member representation at these meeting <br />throughout the county and I greatly appreciate it! <br />o We hosted our 3rd annual UNC School of Public Health “PHield Trip” where SPH students come to <br />Hillsborough and through a scavenger hunt learn about services the health department provides. This <br />year it was raining, so Donna and her crew had to get extra creative. They, of course, pulled it off like <br />pros and students and leadership from the SPH were extremely happy. <br />o In my role as an officer of the Health Director’s Association, I am continuing to work on finding a <br />resolution to the $60 million problem created by a change in cost-settlement calculations. I am <br />eternally optimistic that we will resolve this issue.