PORT ANGELES — Improved access to early childhood learning and parenting skills information as well as addressing substance abuse in Clallam County were the top two priorities at a multi-agency health summit last week.
Summit organizers determined these priorities after about 75 attendees were informally polled on the most important topics of the six public health issues presented at the meeting, said Dr. Tom Locke, public health officer for both Clallam and Jefferson counties.
The other four were availability of primary care providers, mental health care, chronic disease prevention and oral health care.
The summit, organized by the county health department and Olympic Medical Center, brought together medical professionals, nonprofit workers, elected representatives and non-elected Clallam County government officials at the Peninsula College Longhouse on Wednesday afternoon.
The information gleaned will help finalize a community health improvement plan for Clallam County, the first of its kind, and a community health-needs assessment for OMC, Locke said.
Locke said a similar health summit for Jefferson County is in the planning stages.
“It would be something that would be mid-2014 at the earliest,” Locke said.
Jody Moss, executive director of the United Way of Clallam County, said the nonprofit works with other agencies to run classes on parenting skills, though limited grant funding can restrict class size and expansion.
Improving these programs could help ensure children have a healthy start to life, which likely would prevent future health issues, Moss said.
“We’re trying to set that healthy stage early on,” she said.
Jude Anderson, treatment coordinator for the Clallam County health department, said only a small percentage of addicted county residents are able to get treatment.
The North Olympic Peninsula, for example, does not have a dedicated opiate-abuse treatment clinic, Anderson said.
According to figures from the University of Washington, Clallam Count ranked third in 2009 to 2011 among all state counties in heroin and opiate-related prescription drug overdose deaths per 100,000 people.
Anderson urged that addicts be steered toward treatment rather than being forced through the legal system.
“Recovery from addiction is the solution,” Anderson said.
Locke said the development of Clallam County’s health improvement plan, expected to be completed by early January, will include the creation of various partnerships among community groups involved in specific aspects of public health.
“This is not a one-shot process,” Locke said. “This is something that will continue over time.”
Partnerships will focus on specific public health issues and work to complete pinpointed tasks, he said.
The county health department will follow up in the next few months with health summit attendees and others to determine what concrete solutions should and can be tackled first, he said.
“[The] next step is to match up solutions with problems,” Locke said.
“The real measure of success of this is favorable impact [on] one or more of those problems.”
Other presenters at the summit were:
■ Peninsula Behavioral Health CEO Peter Casey on mental health care
■ Dr. Bill Kintner of Olympic Medical Physicians on primary care provider availability.
■ Larry Little, Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics executive director, on dental health care access.
■ Locke on chronic disease prevent and management.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
