Can I share how excited I am? You created a fabulous, detailed community strategic plan to improve health in Delaware County and so many of you have dove right in. We are currently in process of collecting your progress for the first six months and you are doing amazing things. I cannot wait to see where this plan takes us over the next four years.
We cannot move the needle forward without your guidance, support and involvement. I am especially appreciative to those of you who have stepped up to provide leadership to The Partnership as I know that this involvement will require more time and is a major commitment.
Congratulations to returning co-chair Chris Fink of Ohio Wesleyan University. Chris served as The Partnership co-chair during the last CHIP cycle.Chrisbrings a wealth of knowledge to our coalition and has been very active with his students serving as boots on the ground for several of the CHIP strategies.
Welcome to Fara Waugh of SourcePoint who was elected as our new co-chair. Fara has been engaged with The Partnership for many years and has completed Partnership work over the last three CHA – CHIP cycles. She has integrated her staff and worked to ensure that older adults were represented as a target population of the CHIP strategies. We also congratulate Farawho was recently named as the new Executive Director of SourcePoint.
Lastly, this leadership team is in the process of selecting subject matter experts to serve on the steering committee. At this point, the group is close to being finalized. Stay tuned for this announcement.
Have a great summer, relax and stay cool!
Lori Kannally
Partnership Coordinator
Delaware General Health District
CHIP Overview Available
For those of you who would like a brief overview of the 2019-2022 Delaware County Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) to share with your colleagues or other community partners, clickHERE. Please follow the following links to see theCHIP Executive Summary or to view the entire 2019-2022 CHIP report.
Revised CHIP action plans were approved at the June Partnership meeting. Stay tuned for the updated plans.
Delaware County Age-Friendly Data Released
SourcePoint collaborated with the Delaware General Health District and many county partners to create a unique assessment tool which asked residents about where they live and what they would improve. Residents age 55 and older were randomly selected to participate.
The anonymous survey asked participants to answer questions about outdoor spaces and buildings, transportation, housing, community engagement and participation, communication and information, and community and health services. Answers were compiled and a snapshot of the health and well-being of Delaware County adults age 55 and older was created in the 2018 Age-Friendly Assessment Report which was released to the public on May 8th. These results will guide many public and private agencies in their program planning over the next several years by identifying key strengths and weaknesses that exist in Delaware County for aging adults.
CHIP Strategy Updates & Partner Sharing:
Addiction Strategy #1
Expand SBIRT Model
The Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) Model was introduced and embraced by six healthcare and home visiting provider sites and four behavioral healthcare sites in Delaware County. Delaware County providers and administrators from the 10 organizations were trained in the SBIRT model with 22 of the 26 trainees receiving extended training in February so that they can train others. National Trainer Laura Leone from the National Council for Behavioral Health covered all aspects including SBIRT in the context of health, the full model, and SBIRT implementation.
Five sites (including three health care settings and two in-home programs from two different organizations) partnered and then piloted the SBIRT model in May and June of 2019. Those sites included the Mount Carmel Lewis Center Emergency Room, Mount Carmel Powell Physicians Group, Mount Carmel Lewis Center Physicians Group, the Health District’s Pre-natal and Newborn Home Visiting Program, and SourcePoint’s In-Home Care program. Helpline, the referral organization for the SBIRT project, also piloted the SBIRT process and provides screenings for callers, in addition to brief intervention and referral to treatment segments of the SBIRT.
Four behavioral healthcare providers were trained on the SBIRT process and participated in the Delaware County referral process to accept clients for treatment. They included: Syntero, Southeast Counseling, Maryhaven, and Recovery and Prevention Resources. Special THANKS to these partners for adopting this system change and integrating a standardized substance use disorder screening process for Delaware County residents.
Addiction Strategy #4 Increase community awareness and education of risky behaviors and substance abuse issues and trends On April 22, the Delaware City Council passed a Smoke-Free Park Ordinance banning cigarettes, cigars, e-cigarettes and other smoking devices in all city parks, excluding the Hidden Valley Golf Course. The City of Delaware is home to about 40,000 residents that have access to 23 community and neighborhood parks. Many of our medically-sensitive residents and visitors are now able to recreate in our parks and all residents and visitors will experience cleaner air. Park-goers are encouraged to kindly remind any person smoking or vaping that the parks are now smoke-free. This was made possible by Delaware citizens, City of Delaware Park Board, the Tobacco-Free Delaware County coalition, the Delaware General Health District, local organizations and the willingness of City Council to listen to the needs of the community to make our public parks smoke-free.
The ordinance went into effect on May 22, 2019 and signs will soon be posted at all parks in the city.
Mental Health Strategy #1
Implement community-based education to promote
positive mental health
Helpline’s Suicide Prevention Manager Sarah Lee Jefferson and her staff of three are currently booking FREE community-based trainings for individuals and organizations who want to help tackle the “uncomfortableness” surrounding suicide.
The DMMHRSB recently funded Helpline to promote the evidence-based practice of the program entitled QPR (Question Persuade Refer) to help raise awareness that suicide is preventable. QPR’s approach is simple and easy and when followed by all of us - just like CPR or the Heimlich maneuver – QPR can save lives by preventing suicide.
What are those simple and easy steps?
Question…a person about suicide
Persuade…someone to get help and,
Refer…someone to the appropriate resource
Our community needs to talk about suicide comfortably and residents need to learn skills to help each other prevent suicide and QPR provides the solution. We can all be merchants of hope.
Last year, Delaware County had 19 completed suicides, and data from the 2018 Community Health Assessment found that about 3% of Delaware County adults seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. To put that in perspective – that’s roughly 4,008 adults based on Delaware County’s 2018 population estimate.
However, even more alarming is the fact that 11% of youth in grades 6-12 during the 2016/2017 school year reported that they had seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. That number represents roughly around 1,186 youth.
One suicide death is too many – but there is a solution and a plan for action. Get trained today on QPR– contact Sarah Lee Jefferson at sjefferson@helplinedelmor.org or by phone at 740-363-1835 ext 112.
A 2019-2022 CHIP strategy within the chronic disease priority is to research chronic pain best practices. An action step for 2019, was to monitor the Department of Health and Human Services Inter-Agency Task Force on Pain Management Best Practices. The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) of 2016 led to the creation of this Inter-Agency Task Force, which consists of 29 experts who have significant experience across the disciplines of pain management, patient advocacy, substance use disorders, mental health, and minority health.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services, in cooperation with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Secretary of Defense, were required to convene this Task Force to identify, review, and, as appropriate, determine whether there are gaps or inconsistencies between best practices for pain management (including chronic and acute pain) developed or adopted by Federal agencies; propose updates to best practices and recommendations on addressing identified gaps or inconsistencies as appropriate; provide the public with an opportunity to comment on any proposed updates and recommendations; and develop a strategy for disseminating such proposed updates and recommendations to relevant Federal agencies and the general public.
Create a county wide physical activity collaboration
Tony Benishek from Preservation Parks of Delaware County, a member of The Partnership, has agreed to lead this collaborative. We have invited the Delaware County Parks and Recreation Directors of our villages, cities and townships along with Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Mt. Carmel, OSU, OWU, YMCA, Cancer Support Community, Delaware County Regional Planning Commission, SourcePoint, and interested residents; the list of representatives is located here. If you know a community member that you would like to see represented on this collaborative, please let us know. We would be happy to reach out to them and invite them to join. We will be meeting bi-monthly with our next meeting on August 27th at 8:30 a.m. at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, 7853 Pacer Rd.
It’s our objective to look for ways to get more people outdoors enjoying nature by: providing guided trail tours; holding community exploration expos and family fun events; encouraging employee wellness programs; increasing trail connectivity; and, exploring a certified physicians physical activity prescription program.
However, we will first conduct a survey to find out what types of activities that residents enjoy doing and if there are gaps or barriers that prevent residents in engaging in physical activity opportunities. Please take the five-minute survey below and share the link with your clients and colleagues. This survey closes on 9/30/19.
Pictured from left to right: Laura Smith, SourcePoint; Ted Miller, Delaware City Parks and Recreation; Les Wibberley, OPAL; Jodi Kuri, OSU; Kristin Nietfeld, Nationwide Children’s Hospital; Tony Benishek, Preservation Parks; Ian Lafferty, Mt. Carmel; Amy Schossler, SourcePoint; Anne Goodman, Nationwide Children’s Hospital; Clare Edwards, SourcePoint; Jonathan Miller, Delaware County Regional Planning Commission; and, Dalton Jarvis, MHA practicum student.
Cross-cutting Factor Strategy #4
Support trauma-informed health care
On May 22, the Delaware-Morrow Mental Health & Recovery Services Board in partnership with the Delaware City Schools, held a community screening of the documentary Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope.
“The child may not remember, but the body remembers.” The original research was controversial, but the findings revealed the most important public health findings of a generation. RESILIENCE is a one-hour documentary that delves into the science of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the birth of a new movement to treat and prevent Toxic Stress. Now understood to be one of the leading causes of everything from heart disease and cancer to substance abuse and depression, extremely stressful experiences in childhood can alter brain development and have lifelong effects on health and behavior.
However, as experts and practitioners profiled in RESILIENCE are proving, what’s predictable is preventable. These physicians, educators, social workers and communities are daring to talk about the effects of divorce, abuse and neglect. And they’re using cutting edge science to help the next generation break the cycles of adversity and disease.
Click below to preview the trailer for Resilience.
Cross-cutting Factor Strategy #5
Adopt healthy food initiatives
The Delaware County Hunger Alliance (DCHA) is conducting a survey in Delaware County to find out any potential barriers that eligible residents are experiencing in utilizing pantry services and community meals in their areas. Please help distribute the survey link through your organization if appropriate.
Do you worrying about feeding your family?
We need your help! The Delaware County Hunger Alliance is conducting a survey to find out about food insecurity. Please take five minutes to take this survey to help inform us in providing pantry services to you & your family:
Promote healthy eating practices through education and skill-building
Big Walnut Chamber Event
This successful event was held on April 25, 2019 at the Big Walnut High School with hundreds of residents attending. The 2019 DCHA pantry and community meals brochure was distributed as well as the SNAP Delaware Farmer’s Market and Sunbury Farmer’s Market information.
Cooking Matters Pictured is OWU Professor Christopher Fink teaching Cooking Matters to middle school students at Strengthening Families’ Willis Education Center. Cooking Matters was funded again this year by United Way; and, in 2019 the class was offered at Buckeye Valley food pantry, LSS Food Pantry, Andrews House, and United Way Strengthening Families. A healthy meal demonstration was provided at the Delaware City Summer Lunch Program, People In Need Produce Market, Grace Clinic and Delaware City Farmer’s Market.
