Putnam's Public Health Summit X Draws Record Crowd: Health Officials

From the Putnam County Health Department

BREWSTER, NY — The task of improving community health has become more crucial with the pandemic serving as a wake-up call. Health disparities, mental health and the effects of misinformation have moved into a more public view, and when Public Health Summit X convened last week, these truths weighed heavy on the minds of participants.

“The world has changed,” declared the president of Putnam Hospital Center Mark K. Hirko, MD, at the start of five-hour event. “We are all still adapting, and we believe that everyone has the right to health.”

The event drew a record-breaking crowd of over 90 participants to the Putnam County Bureau of Emergency Services in Carmel where it was held for the first time. The larger group also had much wider representation than previous years. Increased participation came from multiple sectors including school districts, legislators and community-based organizations.

The hospital and the Putnam County Department of Health again co-hosted the summit, which previously took place at the hospital. Continuing COVID restrictions on healthcare facilities prevented that this year. Nuvance Health supported the event further by providing lunch; Fidelis Care sponsored the continental breakfast.

Health Commissioner Michael J. Nesheiwat, MD, welcomed and wished the audience well with the difficult work ahead. “Assessing our community health and planning for future improvements are not easy tasks,” he said, “but the people and organizations in this room are remarkable and we can do it.”

Shanna Siegel, RN, supervising public health educator, agreed, further noting that “A different path is ahead of us this year. We must find disparities and barriers, and work to reduce them.”

At the core of the summit are the community partner discussions about available health resources, funding and future possibilities. Ten major health challenges had been identified through the data collection process for the community health assessment, or CHA. This process, spearheaded by health department epidemiologist Alison Kaufman, DVM, MPH, was outlined earlier in the morning to lay the groundwork for developing the community health improvement plan, or CHIP. A prior CHIP steering committee had provided an extra layer of brainstorming in Putnam’s process this year.

The major challenges were further reduced to six to align with the New York State Department of Health priority areas.

All are health problems in which Putnam statistics show an increase in the problem, or they represent numbers that are worse in comparison to other counties in the Mid-Hudson Valley or New York State. These six identified areas include: the numbers of adults and children with obesity, perinatal and infant health disparities, early childhood vaccination coverage, sexually transmitted infections, mental health, and opioid and other substance use disorders.

Feedback from community organizations and health care professionals on these issues is key to the health department further developing and finalizing the CHIP, which identifies two priorities to report results annually, as required by the New York State Department of Health. The Public Health Summit is an integral part of this multi-step process, revolving around a three-year cycle dictated by the state health department.

The overall take-aways from the discussions were that a good number of resources currently exist, even if they are sometimes underfunded, not well known or under-utilized. Staffing and transportation issues were repeatedly raised as concerns, along with the challenges presented by a lack of understanding of cultural beliefs, misinformation and health authority mistrust.

All was not negative, however. Stellar examples of new and growing community vibrance were noted. The Brewster-based, non-profit Second Chance Foods reported delivery of over 40,000 meals in the first six months of 2022 — all made from farm-fresh, rescued food and donated to those in need. Putnam’s Director of Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Alex Roehner took notice when a resident in need made multiple calls for emergency assistance in a short time period. She is now working with partner agencies and linking individuals with community-based services.

Before the discussions got underway, the group heard details about the county’s CHA. Dr. Kaufman reminded the group that despite challenges, "Putnam performs better than NYS and neighboring counties for most measures of health and well-being, affirming our number-one standing in the University of Wisconsin's 2022 County Health Rankings Report. The declines we are seeing in performance over time, across many health measures, are likely due to the wide-ranging impacts of the pandemic."

Other speakers charted achievements of the previous CHIP cycle and local efforts to improve health equity. Kristin McConnell of the Prevention Council of Putnam highlighted the harm reduction work in opioid overdose prevention, part of grant-funded collaboration with Columbia University, under the HEALing Communities Study; Jen Lerner and Ruby Koch-Fienberg, from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Putnam County, presented on the newly established Food Systems Coalition and their USDA-funded work to reduce obesity by improving access to healthy foods and reducing food insecurity. Ildiko Rabinowitz, assistant vice president of health equity, diversity and inclusion at Nuvance Health, laid out their corporate blueprint to address these issues, while Mike Cunningham, director of Office for Senior Resources, described how the agency’s services are built around the “social determinants of health,” emphasizing the operative word of the day, “collaboration.”