Shawnee County’s new epidemiologist outlines priorities: mental health, heat illness, motor‑vehicle deaths

Shawnee County’s newly hired epidemiologist, Josh Van Drunen, used the Board of Health meeting on Oct. 23 to outline how his work will inform county priorities and public‑health interventions.

"Epidemiology aims to learn where disease occurs and why it occurs there," Van Drunen said, describing the field as the study of distribution and determinants of disease. He said his role combines data collection, trend analysis and translating findings into interventions for county programs and community coalitions.

Van Drunen listed current projects that include reportable disease investigation (he cited hepatitis C, STI treatment support, tuberculosis work and vaccine programs), analytics for the Community Health Needs Assessment and Community Health Improvement Plan, prenatal education evaluation, access to care and public‑health informatics support.

He identified several local issues he is tracking: suicide and mental‑health trends, heat‑related illness risks tied to park infrastructure and hydration access, and motor‑vehicle death rates that exceed state and national averages. "Shawnee County does have a higher suicide rate than the state of Kansas," Van Drunen said, referencing Kansas Department of Health and Environment data and noting firearm‑related suicides are a major factor.

Van Drunen said Shawnee County has more mental‑health providers per capita than the state average but faces barriers to access and concerns about quality of care. He reported a rise in depression among older adults and said his work will examine how social, environmental and policy factors affect health outcomes.

Commissioners asked how his analyses would inform resource allocation and program design. Van Drunen said he will supply data to LiveWell Shawnee County and other partners so they can design evidence‑based interventions. "My job isn't just looking at what's going wrong. My job is also to understand what we're doing well and why we're doing it well so we can then translate it and bring it over to improving health outcomes," he said.

Van Drunen added that his work includes assessing where interventions can have the largest effect, identifying service access gaps and supporting evaluation and quality improvement across county public‑health programs.