Orange County NC Website
13 <br /> <br />Quintana Stewart said she has submitted a report for the Board’s review, and briefly 1 <br />discussed the following: 2 <br />• Successfully filled the Board of Health Strategic Plan Manager vacant position (Beverly 3 <br />Scurry) 4 <br />• Successfully recruited, interviewed and selected a new Board of Health representative 5 <br />(Bruce Baldwin, Johanna Birckmayer, Jennifer Deyo) 6 <br />• The Board was very pleased with their ability to use their community project support 7 <br />fund, and were able to support two staff members from the Orange County School 8 <br />system to attend the action based learning kinesthetic classroom national workshop. 9 <br /> 10 <br />Concerns and Emerging Issues 11 <br />• The Board plans to continue to focus on social determinants of health in the coming 12 <br />year, including working with the Family Success Alliance (FSA). 13 <br />• The Board will monitor and continue to work on mental health and substance abuse, 14 <br />especially the opioid crisis. 15 <br />• The Board is planning a community forum to facilitate the drinking water fluoridation 16 <br />topic, as requested by OWASA last fall. 17 <br /> 18 <br />Commissioner Burroughs said Commissioner Rich previously asked about vaping, and 19 <br />asked if there was a timeline for the BOH response to this issue. 20 <br />Quintana Stewart said a draft policy has been completed, and the BOH is currently 21 <br />waiting and doing a political scan. She said the BOH is scheduled to talk about it next month. 22 <br />Commissioner Rich asked if the Health Department can start communicating to high 23 <br />school kids that vaping is not something they should be doing, and warning them of the 24 <br />dangers. 25 <br />Quintana Stewart said there is a senior educator who presents at the schools, and it 26 <br />would be wise to garner more partnerships with the school systems. 27 <br />Commissioner Rich asked if there have been lessons from the Family Success Alliance, 28 <br />and, if so, are those lessons being applied to the rest of the County. 29 <br />Quintana Stewart said some best practices have been developed through the work of 30 <br />the FSA. She said the FSA is beginning its strategic planning process, which will include 31 <br />discussions about spreading the work out beyond the FSA zones. She said this process has 32 <br />yet to be determined specifically. 33 <br />Chair Dorosin said he heard of a statewide report on children, and Orange County 34 <br />scored very well in many categories, but scored poorly on low birth weight babies. 35 <br />Quintana Stewart said she will research this report, and some of their case management 36 <br />programs do work with these clients through pregnancy and infancy. She said determinants of 37 <br />health definitely affect birth weights. 38 <br />Commissioner Price said it could have come from the North Carolina Association of 39 <br />County Commissioners (NCACC), who compiles data from around the state. 40 <br />Commissioner Rich asked if the Health Department is doing a better job of handling 41 <br />undocumented residents and refugees who may be fearful of approaching the department, 42 <br />despite needing help. 43 <br />Quintana Stewart said the Interpreter Supervisor is doing very well at keeping the 44 <br />Department in touch with the immigrant population, and a message of welcome and safety is 45 <br />repeated to these groups; however, missed appointments have increased. 46 <br /> 47 <br />• Board of Social Services: Tamara Dempsey-Tanner, Chair/Lindsey Shewmaker, DSS 48 <br />Unit Manager 49 <br />Tamara Dempsey-Tanner reviewed the following information: 50