Katie Brown of Employees and Family Resources gave an update on working within the local school districts at the Jasper County Board of Health meeting Thursday.
At both the PCM High School and middle school, Brown presented the substance abuse prevention program.
“We’ve talked about alcohol, prescription drug abuse, marijuana — kind of a wide variety of things so they have information and they can make the smarter choices,” Brown said.
She has also been to health classes at Newton High School and Berg Middle School and will be going back with new classes in the fourth quarter. Presentations are finishing up in the sixth grade classes in the Colfax-Mingo school district.
“We talk about drugs and alcohol, but we also talk about communication and goal setting — good life skills for them to have,” Brown said.
Presentations and classes are offered to kids starting in preschool all the way to senior groups throughout the county. A new program with local law enforcement is getting up and running called Prescription Monitoring program and Brown is hoping to start training soon.
Tammy Stapp, administrator of Skiff Hospice, Home Care and Jasper County Public Health along with the board have started work on the Community Health Needs Assessment & Health Improvement Planning (CHNA & HIP). According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, at least every five years, local boards of health are to lead a community-wide discussion with stakeholders and residents about their community’s health needs. After identifying needs in the community, the next step is to identify objectives and strategies to address those needs. The process is a fundamental element in statewide planning. CHNA & HIP have more than a 20-year history in Iowa and represents local action to promote and protect the health of Iowans.
“I think our goal is to show a lot of participation (in the data collection), that is how we engage the community and have a follow up that comes from what is decided,” Stapp said.
Stapp started work by compiling demographics in the county and identify stakeholders that stood out including special populations, special risk populations and those with specific health conditions. The board’s next decision is to choose how it compiles data in the county, either through surveys, public meetings or other avenues. It also has to decide where it wants to put focus for the areas on concern within the county. All of those decisions will be researched and discussed through out the next month to give Stapp guidance as she begins setting up data gathering avenues.
Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com