Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-2021 June 23 PHAB Minutes MINUTES Deschutes County Health Services Public Health Advisory Board (PHAB) June 23, 2021 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. via Zoom videoconferencing Facilitator Keith Winsor, Chair Staff Coordinator Tom Kuhn, Community Health Manager Scribe Ethan Laing Next Meeting August 25, 2021 (or TBD) Topic and Lead Introductions and Approval of February Meeting Minutes Dr. Ross motioned, Steve seconded, and all board members voted to approve the April meeting minutes. Dr. Ross motioned, Tanya seconded, and all board members voted to approve the May meeting minutes. Ethan Laing substituting for Lindsay Seibel Announcements and Unfinished Business - Not having a meeting next month - House Bill 2528 Dental Care passed in Oregon - Parenting with OHSU for a partner program in Madras – currently have a physician shortage in Central Oregon – looks positive for the Federal funding - HB 5024 moving along, passed the joint ways and means committee. $45mil was budgeted for OHA modernization efforts. We’re going for $69mil, but happy with what we got considering that we’ve only received $15mil and $5mil in the past. - HB 587 tobacco legislation is also on its way up the chain, looking good so far. Would provide some local funding for us - HB 2261 got signed by the Governor - HB 2337 equity and data bill, not activity yet, but working on cleaning up the language - Next meeting is schedule in August, we may have to reschedule – keep an eye out for the doodle poll. Important that we still have the meeting, it may also happen in person if Tom can figure out the logistics. Mass Vaccine Clinic update, Anne Kilty, Nurse Practitioner at Public Health, vaccine operation chief. Mass vax clinic shut down last month. We didn’t hit our goal, but we think that it was due to vax availability. Transitioning to community partners, and helping set up other clinics through the county. Right now we offer Pfizer and Moderna. Turn out has been spotty – suspect that it’s due to availability and interest. We have seen a turn in who is showing up, “To promote and protect the health and safety of our community.” Updated 3/4/22 despite our total numbers declining. We’ve had an increase of first doses. Unclear exactly why our numbers are so low, currently tracking how people have heard about us. To help increase interest, we’re implementing a raffle for those who go in for their first does. So far this has had a lot local support, including support from the local businesses. Incentives are a little controversial, and we’re surveying to track public interest. We’re committed until at least the end of July, it may not be worth it beyond that point, but we’re in process of assessing. Also working on making the vaccine more available. Homeless outreach for getting the word out and for getting folk in the door? No specifics, but outreach is happening. We are working with different people within various communities to act as influencers and ambassadors. More contact are better, so if you have any ideas send to Anne. Hosting a large event this weekend to try and help with access with vaccines and other services. Dr. Ross wanted to make sure that we’re also informing the public on the new variant of COVID. The board of commissioners has switched to twice a month for COVID updates. Commissioner Chang would like to focus on employers offering time off for getting the vaccine as well as paid time off for recovery time. Commissioner Chang thinks that the time off would help remove barriers and allow for more people to get vaccinated. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has started to fall out of favor, and the other two vaccines are more effective with one shot than the J & J, so we’re using that option when needed. He community around us have less percentage of vaccinations than us, perhaps we can form a partnership to help our neighboring counties to get their numbers up. Incident Command is a tri-county effort, and we’re working with contracts to help. However, we think that demographic information would be effecting the low numbers in surrounding counties. One of the strategies we’re using is to order smaller increments of doses so none are wasted. OHA does have some mobile clinics, and we’ll have some access soon. This could be a good tool to use for some of the harder to reach areas. Anne and her team are working on identifying the best areas to target. They have also been working with other organizations to help reach as many people as possible. Veterans Outreach is also something we want to keep in mind, and might be a good resource for us. More rural and conservative areas of the state may feel like they don’t see as many county services, this may be a good area for joint-county projects. St Charles had a vaccination population of 72%, where are we at now? St Charles has discussed mandating vaccinations, but due to past experiences with flu vaccine, it’s difficult to pull the trigger on anything. It would also be difficult to prove one way or another. The vaccinated population is higher, but we didn’t have an exact figure at this time. Public Health Budget update, Tom Kuhn – Requests that have been approved – some new positions approved, in the future Tom is going to ask some of the Supervisors to provide some quick presentations on work and expansion that are being done. Special requests – requesting funds for programing of FTE that we haven’t been doing in the past. We were able to get a couple new FTEs in Environmental Health. One is to help with our staffing ratios, the other is to convert one of our limited duration positions to a permanent position. We also updated one of our Environmental Specialist positions from a I to a II. We also added a position specific to air quality and other health hazards. This person would help with expertise and technical assistance around wild fire season. Reproductive Health Services asked for a 0.5 FTE Admin Support Tech. Substance Abuse Prevention was able to be made a regularly funded position. Youth Success Partnership is a new program involving the schools – it’s a three year project for now to embed Public Health specialists into the schools to help address various issues that the school staff may not have. Starting with 2.6 FTE, then adding 1.6 FTE in years 2 and 3. The school is matching our County contributions. Program is scheduled to be up and running by the start of the upcoming school year. The idea is to help the schools carry some of the weight of negative health trends within our school. Tom will have some of the supervisors attend future “To promote and protect the health and safety of our community.” Updated 3/4/22 meetings to expand. Commissioner Chang wanted to clarify that the ARPA funds are separate from the budget project that just happened with Health Services. The Commissioners are still working on where the ARPA funds are going, but thinking that some of the funds can help with non-ongoing projects. We are looking at expanding our facilities in Redmond, looking at purchasing 2 buildings at this time for Health services, and this could be an appropriate use for the ARPA money. Another thought is affordable housing and business assistance investments. PHAB is welcome to submit a formal letter with ideas for how to spend that money. We recommend that money be invested in more affordable housing so that more people can stay employed in this area – we have a lot of vacancies to fill. The problem with Public Health positions is that people can’t afford to live here. The interest is there, just not the housing. OSU Cascades COVID Messaging Report, Sarah Hutson – Drs Chris Wolsko and Elizabeth Marino conducted the research. They have done work for The Laboratory for the American Conversation which specialized in conversation around contentious or controversial topics. They were focusing on vaccine messaging/hesitancy as we as mask usage for our area. We can draw on these skills learned from their research to help direct our messaging in other areas. The technique is value neutral. Health behaviors not the result of rational decision making or just an intellectual decision. Compare individualistic vs communitarian values, and egalitarian vs hierarchical values. The research process included survey data, focus groups, and used interviews to develop and test messages. All participants were offered an incentive for participation. Focus groups themes emerged – Cultural values around trust/distrust, liberty & choice, and family impacts. Other common vaccine hesitancies were ideas around nature taking its course, side effects, shot phobia, and perceived rushed development. Surveys 1 and 2 (April stth 1 and May 24) were only people who were not vaccinated. Respondent randomly presented with a message. Survey 1 found that “you don’t have to trust the government, here are the facts” was the most effective message. Framing the messaging is key. Survey 2 found similar results, but added “it’s up to you”. Survey 2 also found that the messages weren’t as impactful, but it could be due to the fact that Survey 2 took place a couple months after the first. Conclusions – acknowledging truths rather than untruths (validation), for vaccination to be a reasonable choice for anyone we must see the decision as consistent with our own values, and understand that all individuals and communities enmeshed in complex socio-networks. Communication best practices – Take concerns seriously, don’t be defensive, don’t critique, don’t be afraid of elephants in the room, and limit information. We’re using this information for media messaging, train the trainer guidance, and ongoing communication strategies such as building public trust. In looking at the presentation, is there any work being done around getting younger people vaccinated? Sarah said yes, but at the moment is more national messaging. We are additionally working on phone surveys for parent’s intent on vaccinating their children, and the results are expected to wrap up soon. Adjourn 1:21PM Action Items:  None Board Members Present: Keith Winsor, Charla DeHate, David Huntley, Rebeckah Berry, Sharity Ludwig, Tanya Nason, Robert Ross, Sarah Hutson, Steve Strang, Commissioner Phil Chang Staff Members Present: Tom Kuhn, Ethan Laing “To promote and protect the health and safety of our community.” Updated 3/4/22 Guest Presenter: Anne Kilty BOCC – Board of County Commissioners COVID-19 – Coronavirus Disease of 2019 PHAB – Public Health Advisory Board “To promote and protect the health and safety of our community.” Updated 3/4/22