The long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The top health threat for Licking County.

These were some topics discussed by Licking County health officials at a United Way of Licking County Community Partners Council forum held at the Licking County Library Wednesday morning.

The panelists included:

• Licking County Health Commissioner Chad Brown
• Licking Memorial Health Systems Assistant Vice President Community Health & Wellness Ben Broyles
• Equitas Health Director of External Affairs Rhea Dubussy
• Ken Quick. director of the Licking County Community Health Clinic
• Family Health Services of East Central Ohio Director Ashley Washburn

Among some of the questions posed by United Way of Licking County Director Deb Dingus, was what the panelists believed to be the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the community.

Washburn and Quick agreed the need for mental health services became apparent through the pandemic, along with substance abuse services. Quick added he also believes people are asking more questions and there’s been improved health literacy regarding vaccines.

Dubussy agreed there’s more awareness about vaccines, noting she became curious about the vaccines she’d gotten as a child.

“We’re still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cases are on the rise again. I think there’s still lessons we’re going to learn,” she said. “Some things that’s changed is access to telehealth care. For a lot of healthcare agencies, I don’t think that’s something that’s going to go away.”

Broyles said he doesn’t believe anyone knows the long-term impact of COVID on the community, however he’s seen anecdotal information across the country about how many people skipped their preventative care during the pandemic.

“Those kinds of things really went down in the height of the pandemic because people did not want to walk into a healthcare setting…Really seeing those numbers drop down, our concern is what’s to come in two, three, four – ten years from now with the lack of preventative appointments that we certainly saw locally and throughout our state and our region,” Broyles said. “We don’t know yet (all the effects), but we’re going to find out. I don’t think it’s something we’re going to look back and say we didn’t see that coming.”

Brown said he believes vaccine hesistancy will be a lasting impact of the pandemic.

“There’s a lot of scrutiny about the COVID-19 vaccine…I used to teach a class at Ohio University about pandemic response,” Brown said. “We never played into the fact of exactly how political that got. The vaccine became a political weapon and that’s not good.”

When asked to discuss what they believe is a top health threat for Licking County, many of the panelists agreed access to affordable healthcare and mental healthcare are top issues in the community.

“I would say access to care, whether that’s talking about access to care for folks who are uninsured or underinsured…,” Debussy said, adding there’s also concern about access to care for people in the LGBT+ community, Black and Indigenous people of color, and people in rural communities who might have transportation issues.

Quick said he believes the cost of care and prescriptions are a concern in the community, while Washburn said she believes stigma is a top concern for the community.

“I wish we could all come together as a community to get rid of the stigma and to help these sets of individuals that need healthcare,” she said.

Broyles said the community needs assessment annually and points to mental health and addiction services as being a top threat to Licking County, but also chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cancer and COPD.

Brown agreed about the mental health issues, noting with the pandemic, he doesn’t think we’ll realize its toll on mental health for years.

While he said it was great the county had its kids in school the past few years, he expressed a concern about resources available locally for kids in need of mental healthcare.

Brown also noted many kids missed their routine vaccinations, and people missed routine screenings, during the pandemic, so both are things the Licking County Health Department is working to get caught up on.

Source

The post Health officials discuss COVID-19 effects, top health threats for Licking Co. – The Newark Advocate appeared first on News Gaffer.