Approved Minutes of March 2, 2024 Board Retreat

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MINUTES-Draft ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH RETREAT March 2, 2024 • During the listening sessions, rural residents of Orange County frequently expressed that they feel like people don't care about them and they don't have the things they need —transportation, places to buy healthy food, places to exercise, etc. • Dr. Pickett asked about elevated rates of infant mortality in Orange County related to Access to Care, specifically wondering if teen pregnancy and infant mortality may be related, as the outcomes are similarly racially disparate. She asked if teen pregnancy might be covered under Access to Care, to which Ms. Creed replied that this is a definite possibility. • Dr. Jonnal congratulated Ms. Creed on completing the CHA and expressed that she's never before seen public health content focusing so much on the holistic human experience. She went on to say that many public health issues are related to money or its lack. Dr. Jonnal continued, saying that while Orange County is an affluent county, it has the highest level of income inequality of any county in the state, and income inequality is a strong predictor of poor public health. Ms. Creed replied that there are several maps within the CHA that examine the county's racial makeup, showing heavy racial segregation and that health disparities are consistent with the lines of racial segregation. • In response to Dr. Crandell's question about the BOH strategic planning process and prioritization, Ms. Phillips-Weiner chimed in to say that selecting BOH priorities would be the next task on the agenda but confirmed that the priorities presented by Ms. Creed are the priorities for the Healthy Carolinians and that, while they can, the priorities for the BOH do not have to align with these. Ms. Stewart added that board members are invited to participate in Healthy Carolinians initiatives if they desire. • Dr. Royce asked when the BOH could receive and review the completed CHA, to which Ms. Stewart replied that they would receive printed copies at the March BOH meeting but, if desired, a digital copy could be shared by email after it was submitted to the state. • In response to Dr. Royce's expression of uncertainty about how the CHA data had been weighted and finalized to reach the priority areas, Ms. Creed explained that they made charts based on the data from the main CHA survey, ranked the results from the priority survey, and compared these results to confirm that they were in alignment. Once the priorities of the community were confirmed, staff looked at secondary data to confirm that it supported the concerns of community members. Based on this, staff members developed the final three priority areas. Ms. Stewart added that while there wasn't a formal methodology that was applied, the team tried to make sure the secondary data was being coupled with what the community members were saying and that they were looking at commonalities. She added that community concerns that are being addressed by other partners, such as the County Strategic Plan, were considered less important for the health department to address. Evaluation of Priorities for BOH Strategic Plan Based on the priority areas that board members have already been working on (Access to Care, Health Equity, Substance Use Disorders) and the priority areas identified in the 2023 CHA (Access to Care, Behavioral Health, Connections to Community Support), there are a total of S:\Managers Working Files\B0H\Agendas&Abstracts\2024 Agenda and Abstracts/130H Retreat Page 8