Local health officials shared some highlights of a plan to improve community health with Lawrence city commissioners Tuesday, emphasizing ways their goals align with the city’s stated goals.
Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health completes the Community Health Improvement Plan every five years. It is a “roadmap for health that includes goals, objectives, and strategies for advancing equity and making meaningful progress towards health-related outcomes.”
Commissioners had requested a presentation on the latest CHIP, for 2024-2029, published in October.
Jonathan Smith, executive director of Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, and Vicki Collie-Akers, director of policy and planning for LDCPH, presented to city commissioners on Tuesday.
Smith said the plan’s six focus areas — access to health services, behavioral health, anti-poverty, birth outcomes, food security and housing — are areas that shape the lives of everyone living in the community.
“When we reduce food insecurity, we’re strengthening families, neighborhoods and the local economy. When we make housing more stable and affordable, we’re creating conditions for people to access jobs, attend school, contribute to the economy and also stay healthy,” Smith said. “These outcomes don’t live in silos, just like these plans that we’re talking about tonight, and our solutions, shouldn’t either.”
Some of the key objectives of the plan include:
• Increasing the proportion of local people who have a regular primary care provider.
• Creating policy and systemic changes to reduce the percentage of single female-headed households experiencing poverty living below the ALICE — Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed — threshold in Douglas County. This means families who are earning incomes above the federal poverty level yet struggling to afford basic expenses.
• Reducing suicide rates and drug overdose rates.
• Reducing the chronic absenteeism rates in Douglas County schools. Smith said the department has been working with the Lawrence and Baldwin school districts, focusing on that objective as a behavioral health issue.
• Increasing the proportion of pregnant patients who receive adequate prenatal care, and reducing the rate of low birthweight births.
“We are deeply aware that the success of the Community Health Improvement Plan and creating transformational change in our community is connected to the adoption and maintenance of other policies at a local and state as well as federal level,” Collie-Akers told commissioners.
Some of those policies and plans include expanding Medicaid, expanding benefits and enrollment in food assistance programs such as SNAP and WIC, supporting home rule authority to preserve opportunities for community-driven solutions and more.
Smith presented commissioners with several ways the CHIP aligns closely with the city’s strategic plan and “A Place for Everyone,” the joint city-county strategic plan to end homelessness. He suggested the city consider adopting the CHIP.
See the full CHIP online at ldchealth.org/chip. See the full presentation for the commission at this link.
The presentation was a work session item, and commissioners were not asked to take any formal action.
Commissioner Amber Sellers told the presenters she appreciated seeing how the CHIP overlaps with other strategic plans and emphasized the need to identify and call out local barriers.
Commissioner Bart Littlejohn mentioned a need for child care for people who are working third shifts and the difficulty some have finding care during very late and very early hours. He said it was important to try to keep the CHIP resilient and flexible, considering the volatility of state and federal funding.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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