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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-2021 February 24 PHAB MinutesDeschutes County Health Services Public Health Advisory Board (PHAB) MINUTES February 24, 2021 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. via Zoom videoconferencing Facilitator Keith Winsor, Chair Staff Coordinator Tom Kuhn, Community Health Manager Scribe Lindsay Seibel Next Meeting March 24, 2021 - Zoom Introductions and Approval of January Meeting Minutes David Huntley motioned, Robert Ross seconded, and all board members voted to approve the January meeting minutes. Keith Winsor introduced former PHAB member Stacey Witte. Stacey is the Executive Director of REACH, a mobile case management organization that provides outreach and wrap around services to the community. Updates and Unfinished Business - General Update o The Commissioners reviewed wildfire mitigation and management issues at the 2/24/21 Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting. Keith would like Ed or Pete to provide an update on wildfires to the PHAB soon. Recordings of past meetings are available at www.deschutes.org/meetings. - 10 AM COVID updates at BOCC meetings o Deschutes County Health Services provides a COVID-19 update to the BOCC on Wednesdays at 10:00 AM. You can watch these meetings live or via recording. Brief legislative update o SB587 is a Tobacco Retail Licensure (TRL) bill that ensures all tobacco retailers are licensed as well as provides education and training for tobacco retailers. This is the same bill as the one in 2020 that fell off the radar due to the walk off at the end of the session. It can be administered at either the state or local level, although local enforcement is most likely better since there are more opportunities for personal interaction with businesses. The public hearing is set for March 11 2021. Tom Kuhn emailed the PHAB members the SB587 document as well as the PHAB letter of support for the bill. Tom met with Commissioner Chang on 2/23/21 and will meet with Commissioners Adair and DeBone on 2/25/21 to advocate for this bill. Tom is requesting a priority to support this bill during the Commissioners' legislative meeting on 2/26/21. The State requests that Counties use their Countv loqo on the State's written testimony. "To promote and protect the health and safety of our community." Uraatea4/19/21 Tanya Nason asked what the licensure would look like in Deschutes County. Tom and Kerrie Nard are developing a spreadsheet with estimations of cost for employee and business fees. Once this spreadsheet is updated, Tom will have a better idea of fees. His best estimation is that the fees would be around $300 to $500, depending on staffing and other resource needs. The immediate goal is to receive the Commissioners' support through highlighting the bill's goal of protecting children from vaping products. ■ David Huntley asked if there would be any return funds from TRL. Tom said no, that implementation funding would come from licensure. Rebeckah Berry mentioned that she worked with TRL in Salt Lake County for many years and wondered why Oregon does not already implement TRL. Tom explained that Oregon is one of seven states that does not implement a TRL bill, maybe because Oregon is a bit more anti -tax than other states. ■ There may be opportunities to testify for SB587. Tom will keep the PHAB updated. - PH Modernization Testimony on February 9t" (HB 5024) o Tom and Keith testified on Feb. 9 via Zoom in support of HB 5024, which calls for $69 million for public health modernization. HB 5024 and SB587 are the only bills with public hearings. Tom and Keith explained that testifying via Zoom created a new dynamic, much different from when they testified in previous years. All but one of the twenty-five people who testified were in favor of HB 5024, and the one person opposed wanted the bill to go even further. Keith believes that the COVID-19 pandemic put some fire underneath PH modernization with many more people becoming aware of the importance and need for public health. Keith and Tom are confident that the bill will pass. Meeting with Commissioner Chang Follow-up Tom, Rebeckah, and Keith met for one hour with Commissioner Chang on Feb. 5 to discuss the PHAB 2021 priorities. They felt that Commissioner Chang brought a new set of eyes to the discussion by considering the priorities through a political lens. Based on Commissioner Chang's input, Keith made a few edits to the priorities. Commissioner Chang frequently used the word Ilactionize" in their meeting, so Keith would like to understand how the PHAB could help the Commissioners actionize the 2021 priorities. Edits to PHAB 2021 Priorities COVID: - Mask Protocol: There may be a benefit of limiting Deschutes County's mask protocol to match the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. Dave Huntley commented that all of our guidance is based on the CDC guidelines anyway and wants to ensure mask wearing is not overlooked. Keith explained that this edit mostly focuses on being sensitive and not condescending in our mask education efforts. - Vaccination: No cha "To promote and protect the health and safety of our community." Uraatea4/19/21 Health Screenings: It may be helpful to be more general in our promotion of regular health screenings. Non-COVID immunizations: All of the Commissioners will strongly support this priority. Roll-over priorities from 2019 to roll to 2021: - Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) infection & teen pregnancy and reproductive health: Commissioner Chang was concerned with both of these topics due to politicization. Tom believes the best approach is to emphasize protecting youth and to reduce the politicization as much as possible. The next step is for Dave, Keith, Rebeckah, and Tom to organize a work session with the BOCC in the next few weeks. Homeless Community Update Stacey Witte, the Executive Director for REACH, provided an update on how REACH is serving our community members experiencing homelessness. Stacey founded REACH after noticing a gap in long-term homeless community services. REACH provides services for approximately 350 to 375 individuals monthly and responds to about 20 to 40 calls per day. One of REACH's goals is to meet people where they are and bring essential needs to them. This includes building deeper relationships with clients and helping them develop personal goals to increase independence. One positive outcome of the pandemic is that it forced the social service agencies like REACH to meet virtually and collaborate in order to ensure services are not duplicated. Over the last year, REACH partnered with many other social service agencies such as Deschutes County Health Services, the Stabilization Center, and local shelters to provide community services. Stacey helps people in crisis by assisting with paperwork, assessing access to health services, and providing essential supplies like phones, sleeping bags, tents, socks, underwear, first aid kits, solar chargers, dog food, and water. Stacey intentionally founded REACH as a mobile operation in order to keep costs down. Stacey is currently looking into hiring part-time employees and volunteers since she is the only full-time employee. Stacey is also in the process of applying for additional funding through federal grants. Community Programs - In collaboration with the Bend Police Department and Eastmont Church, Stacey created a 90 -day trial for a safe car -parking program last summer that provided a porta potty, handwashing station, and a parking lot at Eastmont Church for individuals to park their cars and take care of personal hygiene needs. Participants were not required to take breathalyzer or drug tests, but drugs or alcohol were not allowed. This program is currently operating at a local Lutheran church, but Stacey is looking for other locations in the city to grow the program. During the trial, the Bend Police Department was never called. This is an extremely inexpensive and effective program where REACH can provide case management services daily. - NeighborImpact runs an isolation motel where individuals diagnosed or exposed to COVID-19 can isolate and quarantine. REACH provides case management for individuals participating in this program, including inmates released from prison to isolate due to a COVID-19 infection. "To promote and protect the health and safety of our community." Uraatea4/19/21 - REACH provides case management services such as assistance with paperwork, stimulus checks, budgeting, and creating bank accounts at Shepherd's House. - REACH works closely with the Bend Police Department to identify solutions for managing various locations with people experiencing homelessness. - REACH helps identify community issues such as the growing trash piles near camps where organizations and individuals drop off unsolicited supplies. - The Turnkey project is planning to take over another motel in town. Stacey warned that we have to be careful with motels since these are short-term solutions. REACH aims to work toward longer-term solutions. Questions - Keith asked if Deschutes County could create a camp like Portland's where the camps are fenced off, organized, and have bathrooms. Stacey replied that we definitely need a managed camp since this is a longer-term option, but the challenge is finding land and people to manage the camp. REACH does not have the bandwidth to manage the camp. Alison Perry asked if the increase in camps popping up is related to people who have lost jobs due to the pandemic. REACH tracks this data by asking people how they have been impacted by COVID-19. Some people were on the verge of finding housing, but were not able to because of the pandemic. Fires affected many people as well. Keith asked about vaccinations for people experiencing homelessness. Stacey said that Mosaic Medical provides vaccine clinics in their mobile van. The isolation motel had a van out front a few weeks ago. Shepherd's House is trying to vaccinate clients as much as possible, but many suffer mental illness or other barriers. Many believe the government put trackers in the vaccines. Others do not believe COVID-19 is real. However, we have not seen a huge increase in COVID-19 cases in the homeless community. REACH provides masks and hand sanitizers to help decrease the spread. Keith thanked Stacey for the update and presentation. Please reach out to Stacey if you have further questions. PHAB Priorities Brainstorming Session Tom asked for specific operational examples we could use to actionize the PHAB priorities. We will present these examples to the Commissioners. Support COVID-19 Vaccinations - Alison suggested sharing information through a Public Service Announcement (PSA), news release, or a "myth busters" document to address misinformation, vaccine hesitancy, and trust issues. We could also include resources where the community can find accurate data. Keith suggested exploring the possibility of using unused money for flu vaccination outreach for COVID vaccination. Health Services could provide staffing or create PSAs we well. We could also ask the Commissioners to allocate funding for this project. "To promote and protect the health and safety of our community." Uraatea4/19/21 - We could collaborate with the vaccine hesitancy group that Nahad Sadr-Azodi is running to provide accurate information for those who are vaccine hesitant. - Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is conducting vaccine hesitancy focus groups in rural communities. We could ask to receive the aggregated results summary to help the PHAB make decisions. - Dave suggested reaching out to Boost Oregon as a partner to provide neutral community education, although he is unsure of their capacity. - Durlin pointed out that even some well-educated healthcare providers are vaccine hesitant. Durlin also supported creating billboards for COVID immunization, especially the billboard at Highway 97 and Empire. - Jason Jundt highlighted the importance of encouraging healthcare providers to have conversations with their patients regarding vaccination since they are likely the most trusted source of information. Asking about COVID vaccine hesitancy could be part of the standard interview questions from the healthcare provider. Jason was unaware of any guidance from the Oregon Medical Association or the County on how to have these conversations with patients. The PHAB could help reach out to providers to encourage and provide guidance for these conversations. These suggestions give Keith, Tom, and Rebeckah something to work from since many of them could apply to other priority areas. Adjourn 1:22 pm Action Items: • None. Board Members Present: Rebeckah Berry, Durlin Hickock, Dave Huntley, Jason Jundt, Sharity Ludwig, Tanya Nason, Alison Perry, Robert Ross, and Keith Winsor Staff Members Present: Tom Kuhn, Lindsay Seibel Guest Presenter: Stacey Witte BOCC — Board of County Commissioners PHAB — Public Health Advisory Board TRL — Tobacco Retail Licensure CDC — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention STD — Sexually Transmitted Disease PSA — Public Service Announcement OHSU — Oregon Health & Science University REACH — Relationship Empowerment Action Compassion Heart "To promote and protect the health and safety of our community." Uraatea4/19/21