Approved Minutes of March 2, 2024 Board Retreat

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MINUTES-Draft ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH RETREAT March 2, 2024 five potential focus areas for Board of Health strategic planning over the next four years. Board members discussed which priority areas they wished to focus on and, once the likely priorities had been decided, who would serve on each priority committee. Some highlights of this discussion are below: • Dr. Crandell asked if there were other priority areas that could be focused on or if the board was limited only to these focus areas. Ms. Phillips-Weiner clarified that the board could choose any priority areas that they agree upon, but she had organized the discussion around the five potential areas to help keep things focused. Ms. Phillips- Weiner opened the floor to other suggestions for priorities. Dr. Crandell suggested youth and teen health, including topics like screen time, adolescent vaping, and possibly prenatal care. Dr. Royce suggested civic engagement as a possible priority. Mr. Bagby expressed concern that a committee focused on young people's health might be duplicative, as Orange Partnership is already doing a lot of work focused on the health of young people. • Dr. Baldwin commented that he felt that two of the 2023 priorities were the same as the existing areas (Access to Care and Access to Care; Substance Use Disorders and Health Behaviors). He also suggested that Connections to Community Support could merge nicely with Health Equity, and it might be possible to simply keep the existing areas and do work that covers both priorities. • Dr. Royce said that she feels torn and would kind of like to get rid of Health Equity as its own priority area to ensure that instead each committee is being intentional about incorporating health equity in their work. Mr. Bagby expressed concern that if health equity was not a priority on its own then it might be swept under the rug and not made a priority in committee work going forward. Dr. Royce clarified that she meant that health equity should be elevated and made a significant part of all strategic planning efforts for each priority area. Ms. Stewart added that at a county level, organizations are moving away from siloed efforts to address health equity, and instead to incorporate equity considerations into every action, giving the example of the health department budget. She agreed that if health equity were not its own priority going forward then there would be deliberate efforts to make sure it was being addressed by all committees. Mr. Bagby was still concerned that equity might be pushed off to the last minute and end up not being addressed if committees ran out of time; Ms. Phillips-Weiner assured him that she and Ms. Stewart have discussed this and would be intentional about including health equity in any strategic planning efforts. Ms. Stewart also shared her concern that keeping health equity as a separate priority focus might prevent other committees from considering it, as they assume it is being taken care of by the health equity committee. Because the board wanted to build in concrete accountability for themselves to ensure that equity did not become an afterthought, this activity concluded with a brainstorming exercise by the board on ways to build health equity checks into their activities. • Dr. Stuebe mentioned an infographic that explains the difference between equality, equity, and justice (shared below). She said that many of these potential priorities are human rights issues (a right to healthcare, a right to mental health and support) and that she wonders if the board should instead focus on justice rather than equity. Dr. Rodgers echoed that justice is removing the barriers while equity is providing supports. Ms. Stewart expressed her support for this idea, saying that Orange County is often a S:\Managers Working Files\B0H\Agendas&Abstracts\2024 Agenda and Abstracts/130H Retreat Page 9