Improving Community Health Through Planning and Partnerships

Improving Community Health through Planning and Partnerships

Louisa Community Health Assessment Council

Location: Louisa County Office Building

April 29, 2016

Minutes

Introductions/Attendees:

Tracey Brookman (UVA Public Health Sciences)

Whitney Dean (Louisa CSA)

Frances Dumin (CHIP)

Willie Gentry (Louisa BOS)

Carrie Gladden (Health and Wellness Center of Louisa)

Crystal Estes (Louisa County DHS)

Michelle Hottinger (Region Ten CSB)

Eric MacKinnon (Healthy 4 Life, Reikki Healing of Palmyra)

Melinda McCall (Louisa Veterinary Service)

Kerry Morrison (TJHD)

Jillian Regan (Health Department)

Lloyd Runnett (LCLC)

Updates/Highlights from Section II Discussion

·  PowerPoint and handout for more information available online

·  Community themes and strengths survey:

·  Vet Melinda McCall is willing to take survey door to door (farm to farm) when she and the other vet in her practice visit their clients

-  Jillian said April would reach out to her about getting surveys to her so she can distribute

·  Lloyd Runnett of the Louisa County Resource Council said yes they would be willing to have us come administer survey and that for the resource council, the first 3 days of the month are good, when we could reach a large number of people (estimated 300 people)

·  Also CHA council members are willing to e-mail the link to the online survey monkey survey

Section III Data and

·  PowerPoint and handout for more information available online

·  Alcohol store access recalculation seems closer

·  1 outbreak of influenza last year?

o  (Kerry): Outbreaks have to be reported, some may not be reported

o  How do we know outbreak versus an illness?

o  (Kerry): People who work in these environments (schools, nursing homes, etc.)/ community partners typically know what’s normal and know when something’s off or something unusual is going on, there is no specific threshold but people usually notice when having a high incidence

·  Is this showing new cases of TB verses people who test positive because they were exposed (incident versus prevalence cases)?

o  (Kerry): Yes, newly diagnosed

·  Crypto outbreak in Louisa

o  It was from an outbreak in baby calves from a man who sells baby calves to families from livestock shows and these people don’t have the education or financial stability to get calves vaccinated/ have a veterinarian look at them and their children are often around the sick calves… If you know a person like that who is a point source, how do you stop it? Can you do anything about it?

o  (Kerry): Sale of livestock is regulated by department of health and human services/ VDAX… I would have to defer to them… provide education and information (hand washing)

·  We have also seen a lot of Anaplasmosis from the tick population… lots of tick borne disease here

o  (Kerry): Highlight Lyme and RMSF but not the only ones… recommend tick checks, may not transmit a specific illness but may transmit another. Talk to their health care provider if feeling sick after removing a tick

·  Trends that Stood Out à

·  Tick/vector borne

·  Dental

o  Did you touch on access to healthy food? Did you bring that in with dental health as well?

§  No, we are just looking at outcomes today but healthy eating does affect dental health

o  That’s pretty significant… access is definitely a problem. Most patients are on Medicaid and that first dental visit is traumatic if need extensive dental work (scheduling may be a problem, far in advance)

§  Refer out if need extensive work

·  Alcohol related car crashes:

o  Louisa county sheriff department has a very aggressive program

o  (Kerry): 2 or 3 averages

o  Rural roads play a role? Yes. Also a lot of accidents on our section of the highway, particularly Zion Crossroads

Notes from After the meeting:

·  Discussion with Vet Dr. Melinda McCall about educating people about importance of washing hands after handling livestock/ animals

·  If we can send educational materials to her (posters, brochures), she would be willing to distribute

·  She and Kerry discussed maybe having Kerry come to Agricultural fairs or events to provide prevention education for preventing spread of disease (crypto, etc.) from animals to humans

·  Mentioned that she has noticed that not a lot of healthcare providers ask about possible exposure to ticks, etc.

àPossible opportunity for education of health care providers?

·  Carrie Gladden (of the Health and Wellness Center of Louisa) said that the poor dental health outcome data really stood out to her and she finds this data useful because they are trying to expand their dental clinic and hire another dental hygienist / dentist to be able to provide more dental care to the community

·  Currently they have 1 dentist, they accept Medicaid as well as have sliding scale for uninsured pts, and are always booked, currently booked all the way into July even for things like toothache.

Next Meeting: May 27, 2016