Burke County health department presents community health assessment, communicable disease update and child-fatality prevention work; inspections performance and

Burke County health department staff presented data and program updates Monday as part of the Board of Health meeting. The board accepted the county's recent community health assessment and improvement plan, received a communicable disease surveillance update, and accepted the annual child fatality review report.

Miranda Smith, public health educator for Burke County, summarized the community health assessment process and the three priorities selected from the 2022 assessment: mental health, substance use disorder and obesity. "Out of the 2,149 individuals, 888 people who took the survey said that mental health, anxiety, and depression impacted the overall health of the individual the most," Smith said. The county's Community Health Improvement Plan chose programs tied to those priorities including a Community Paramedicine program, recovery-court support and food-access initiatives such as a WIC-linked fresh food voucher program.

Smith said the county collected 2,149 survey responses and conducted focus groups; the 2022 Community…