Approved Minutes of March 27, 2024

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MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH March 27, 2024 there has been an increase in the demand for non-alcoholic beverages and shared that North Carolina's first alcohol-free bottle shop, Boro Beverage Co., has opened on Franklin Street. • Dr. Jonnal commented that treatment is often considered more lucrative than prevention and that she feels this is manifesting in the nation's approach to mental health care. Ms. Luu said that alcohol and mental health are bidirectional, meaning that they exacerbate each other, and it is difficult to tease out that relationship. She added that institutions are starting to recognize this relationship and moving towards a more holistic approach to treat overall well-being rather than just preventing and treating substance use. She added that the CCC aims to decrease the barriers to screening and intervention, though treatment is not her particular area of expertise. She said that culture change and building up social skills are the two approaches she believes will be most effective to address this issue, but that neither are quick fixes. • In response to Commissioner Fowler's question about funding sources for the CCC, Ms. Luu replied that they receive equal parts funding from the ABC Board, Orange County Health Department, UNC Student Affairs, and the Town of Chapel Hill. She added that they have received a small Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant as well. B. 2023 Community Health Assessment Results and Data McKayla Creed, Healthy Carolinians of Orange County Coordinator, provided an overview of the data and results of the 2023 Community Health Assessment (CHA). Some highlights of her presentation are below: • Ms. Creed began her presentation by reviewing the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), which are the conditions of the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. These include things like healthcare access, neighborhood environment, social context, financial stability, and education. She also shared that all figures and data in her presentation came directly from the CHA document. • Ms. Creed provided an overview of the CHA survey timeline and a preview into the upcoming Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIPs) process. She also thanked the board members for their support during the community listening sessions. • To assess well-being in Orange County, data is compared against peer and neighboring counties. Ms. Creed explained that peer counties are counties with similar demographics such as population, income or education levels, or age or race distributions, while neighboring counties are ones that are geographically close. • Ms. Creed underscored again that affordable housing and mental health were consistently voiced as concerns by those who completed the survey or participated in listening sessions. • While reviewing disparities around life expectancy for different genders and different racial groups in Orange vs comparison counties, Mr. Bagby asked what factors explained the discrepancies between counties. Ms. Creed replied that she did not know the exact factors and that it could possibly be explained by things such as a higher number of medical facilities in Orange County or Orange County having a larger number of retirees who have moved into the county compared with other counties, skewing the results. • Ms. Creed shared that mental health is an area of particular priority as suicide is the ninth leading cause of death in Orange County but does not rank in the top ten for the S:\Managers Working Files\BOH\Agendas &Abstracts\2024 Agenda and Abstracts/ March Page 6