ANCBH 21st Annual Meeting
BY JANE NICHOLSON
Volunteerism, advocacy and the ability to creatively address public health challenges are key roles of members of the state’s local boards of health, according the ANCBH President Bob Blackburn. Blackburn spoke at the annual meeting of the Association of North Carolina Boards of Health meeting January 26 in Raleigh.
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| Lorraine Salois-Deane, out-going President, “passes the gavel” in miniature to Bob Blackburn, incoming President. |
Blackburn said more than 800 committed volunteers serve on boards of health across the state. “These are influential people who can work with the health director, work with the county commissioners and work with the county manager,” he said. Cooperation is vital to the success of public health because, “If we all are not on the same page we have chaos for both public health and the health of the citizens of our county,” Blackburn said.
“It is an exciting time in public health,” Blackburn continued. “We all know the core functions: the assessment of public health status, policy development and the public health services that we strive for. While accreditation, (and we do lead the nation in local health department accreditation,) advocacy, new programs, new facilities are important in our counties, we must remember one of our basic functions is what happens when people and patients walk through the front door of their local health department for the services being offered.
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| Doris Pillow, RN of Person County and John Avent, MD of Nash County talk public health at the 21st Annual Meeting. |
“We need to continually stay updated on health issues. We have seen Spanish flu, Asian flu, Hong Kong flu, Russian flu, bird¹s flu and now MRSA (called a super germ.) It is not a question of if it will happen, but when. Other issues in public health, include childhood obesity, diabetes in the African American population, major life threatening diseases and the threat of a pandemic flu outbreak just to mention a few,” Blackburn said.
Blackburn said boards of health and their communities face many challenges and opportunities today, not only from the impact of natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes and even snow and ice storms, but also the challenges of recruiting and retaining skilled public health professionals and convincing legislators to fund various public health initiatives, particularly in a year that will see competition for limited tax dollars.
“Advocacy is an important function of members of the board of health,” Blackburn said. “We will work with the NC Association of Local Health Directors, the Council for Healthy Schools, and others to have an impact for public health this year but it will be challenge this year. “Our state budget will be slightly under $20 billion dollars this year, and state officials are projecting a budget shortfall anywhere from $5 million to $1 billion dollars, and we¹re going to Raleigh to ask for funding for various programs. The legislature is going to be in a big bind with issues such as school construction issues and a push to take over counties Medicare costs.”
In Cleveland County, like other counties across the state, many public health professionals will be retiring in the not-to-distant future. Blackburn said that to address the shortage, the Cleveland County Board of Health is seeking legislation that would allow public health retirees to “double dip” – that is return to work in Cleveland County after they have .been retired for at least six months. This legislation is similar to what the public school system is now doing.
“We have got to work hard, because the challenges are out there in public health,” he said. “Your leadership has given ANCBH the guidelines to go forward. Join with us as we work to face those challenges in an ever changing community.”
Carl Durham Award Presented to Brunswick County’s
David Sandifer
BY JANE NICHOLSON
David Sandifer, chairman of the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners and member of Brunswick County’s Board of Health has received the Association of North Carolina Boards of Health’s Carl Durham Award for his leadership and advocacy in public health.
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| January, 2007 Annual Meeting. Barbara Ann Hughes, out-going Past-President, presents the Carl Durham Award to David Sandifer of Brunswick County for his leadership and advocacy in public health. Don Yousey, Brunswick County Health Director, is on the right. |
Don Yousey, director of the Brunswick County Health Department (BCHD) nominated Sandifer for the award. Yousey said that Sandifer is an untiring advocate.
“He gives more time and more energy and at more personal and financial cost to himself than anybody I have ever known to local government,” Yousey said. “He is there every day, no matter what people need from him, he never says no. He’s just that kind of person.”
Yousey said Sandifer encourages him and members of the Brunswick County Health Department to put good ideas into action. “Every single time I had an idea that I felt was worth doing, I talked to David and he carried that forward to the commissioners and to leaders at the state level to get their support.”
For instance, the BCHD created a task force to address the disparities
in the infancy mortality rate between the county’s minority and
Caucasian populations. As a result, the mortality rate of minority
infants declined more than 50 percent. The health department also secured
a grant to begin a senior services practice to serve the county’s
the fastest-growing population.
Turnaround time is one of the biggest complaints about environmental
health across the state, but not in Brunswick County, Yousey said. “That’s
because my commissioners let me pay the salaries to keep the staff
to get the work done.”
Last year, with Sandifer’s support, the BCHD received an incubator grant from the state to establish a statewide staffing agency for environmental health. Now if a health department loses a member of their environmental health staff, they can contract through the Public Health Alliance in North Carolina for temporary staff to fill the vacancy until the environmental health specialist is replaced.
“Two years ago, doctors said they couldn’t take anymore Medicare patients because the pay was too low. The county commissioners said we can’t live with that,” Yousey said.
The practice clinic had $84,000 in income this year, and provided $120,000 in free care. “Many counties would say you’re losing money,” Yousey said. “My commissioners say if you are serving the people, we’ll find a way to balance the budget.”