Approved Minutes of October 25, 2023

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MINUTES-Draft ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH October 25, 2023 Ms. Williams shared that the Community Health Assessment Listening sessions are slated to begin Monday of next week and will run through November. She said this will offer community members an opportunity to vote on priority areas for the upcoming strategic plan and for the board to engage with and receive feedback from community members. Dr. Royce asked about the status of data analysis, to which Ms. Williams replied that Mark Smith, the contract epidemiologist working to support the CHA, is using a CDC-based program to analyze the data. She added that Mr. Smith has unfortunately not been able to `drill down' on certain items such as outcomes for specific demographic categories due to the way the survey was conducted. In response to Dr. Royce's question about secondary data (i.e., data not collected within the CHA survey), Ms. Williams explained that while some would be presented during the listening sessions, the focus would be on sharing primary data (i.e., data that was collected within the CHA survey) and allowing time for discussion. However, she clarified that the final report would go into greater detail about both primary and secondary data. Ms. Stewart added that the listening sessions will be about an hour and a half long and that community members will be given a broad summary of findings to consider for priority setting. Dr. Stuebe clarified that the listening sessions are intended to learn from community member's lived experiences, which Ms. Stewart confirmed. Dr. Royce expressed that she now understood that we are listening to community members rather than them listening to us. Mr. Bagby asked when board members would receive information about their role in the listening sessions, as they would begin in only a few days. Ms. Stewart said that the staff working on CHA would confirm the plans for the listening sessions in their meeting on Friday morning and would share the information out shortly after. Dr. Jonnal asked for the information about listening session sign-ups to be shared out again and Mr. Bagby echoed this to ensure that Dr. Nickelson has access to it. Jean Phillips-Weiner, Board of Health Strategic Plan Manager, said she would resend this information. Mr. Whitaker asked if Ms. Phillips-Weiner could also share which sessions board members have already signed up for, which she agreed to do. C. Health Directors Report Ms. Stewart presented her report to the Board. Below are brief highlights of her report. • The Health Department received two new awards and was granted $11,000 at the NCPHA Conference in September—the GlaxoSmithKline Child Health Local Health Department Award and the Dr. Sarah Morrow Health Department of the Year Award — for our collaborative and innovative work with the Gateway Village Community. In response to Dr. Royce's question about sharing this news in a press release or similar format, Ms. Stewart replied that Dana Crews, Community Health Services Director, is working on a press release as the Communications Manager role is currently vacant. • COVID numbers are slowly improving, with hospital admission rates dropping but ICU admissions increasing. Ms. Stewart also shared that the health department is encouraging folks to get their updated boosters and that the department is continuing to mask in an effort to slow spread among staff. • The new COVID vaccines and RSV vaccines are arriving in waves; we now have both Pfizer and Moderna boosters for COVID and the RSV doses for pregnant women and older adults. In response to Dr. Royce's question about whether the health department S:\Managers Working Files\BOH\Agenda&Abstracts\2023 Agenda&Abstracts/ October Page 10