Approved Minutes of June 25, 2025

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MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH June 25, 2025 every department in the county has their own individual comprehensive list of resources in the county, and that there are ongoing efforts to streamline these. She said that it seems like community members prefer to use OC Connect over 211 and added that these tools are only as good as the data being updated. She noted that county leadership is considering whether they may need to hire a navigator to help keep the resource lists up-to-date and shared that there is a new IT project that has been approved to develop an Al bot to help pull information from the Orange County Website which may be available as a resource in the future. • Ms. Creed reviewed the morbidity and mortality data over the past year and shared that there were no substantial changes since the 2023 CHA. In response to Dr. Pickett's question, Ms. Creed clarified that the data covers people of all ages in the county, though infant mortality is also broken out separately. • New initiatives put forth in 2024 to address the health priorities include the hiring of an Opioid Response and Harm Reduction Coordinator, Tonya Stancil, at the Health Department, implementation of a pilot Post-Overdose Response Team (PORT) within Orange County Emergency Medical Services (EMS), a pilot program offering vaping prevention and cessation services at Orange County High School, an amendment to the Orange County Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) to restrict opening of new tobacco and vape shops near youth spaces, a bloodborne pathogen program to educate tattoo and body modification artists about health and safety, and the Bar Education Legislation (BELs) program to provide food safety education to bars that serve food. • Some current challenges highlighted by Ms. Creed include concerns about immigration, potential funding cuts to Medicaid and 988 phone lines, and the increasing cost of living. • Ms. Creed shared that Healthy Carolinians recently sponsored a Little Free Library in the Hillsborough community garden off the Riverwalk. This is the first of several planned Little Free Libraries designed to share books and resources in multiple languages, for all ages, and covering a variety of topics. She added that the board was invited to tour the garden, which donates food to PORCH Hillsborough. In response to the comment of Ms. Stewart, Ms. Creed shared that she had painted the Little Free Library. • Ms. Creed gave a shout-out to Commissioner Fowler for attending so many Healthy Carolinians meetings and for contributing to the development of the County Health Improvement Plans (CHIPs). • Mr. Whitaker asked about the size of the housing gap, as he has seen multiple conflicting figures for this estimate. Ms. Creed explained that the figure of 13,689 came from the Chamber of Commerce. She added that the number of units feels daunting. In response to Dr. Royce's question, Ms. Creed said that Orange County has a larger housing gap than its peer counties from the 2023 CHA, but she was not sure by how much and said she could find out. • Mr. Bagby applauded Ms. Creed, her presentation, and her growth as an employee. Vill. Reports and Discussion with Possible Action A. Media Items Libbie Hough, Communications Manager, presented the media packet to the board. Topics included: updates and improvements to the Orange County Health Department website; measles vaccination efforts amid outbreaks; the recent Measles Symposium hosted by the Orange County Health Department; news about the positive impact of warning labels on e- cigarette products; Heat Awareness Week; local dairy farmers advocating for the sale of raw S:\Managers Working Files\BOH\Agendas &Abstracts\2025 Agenda and Abstracts/ June Page 5