The Health Council of East Central Florida, Inc. - MAPP

Having been postponed twice due to hurricanes, the inaugural meeting of the Orange County Health Planning Partnership was finally held on October 21, 2004 at the Orlando Marriot Downtown. Meryl Biszick, Vice Chair of the Health Council of East Central Florida, Inc., enthusiastically welcomed the 80 community partners that were in attendance. Ken Swann, Dirctor of the Orange County Health Department, spoke of the importance of the Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) process. Mr. Swann addressed the need to conduct an assessment of the public health care system in an effor to identify the gaps and remove the barriers encountered when accessing healthcare by the underinsured and uninsured residents in Oranage County. He then introduced Christine Abarca and Debbie Reich from the Florida Department of Health.

Christine and Debbie presented an overview of the MAPP process. This process highlights the importance of community participation and collaboration, the consequences of not addressing current/potential community issues, and the benefits of formulating goals and strategies related to the community vision. The MAPP process ensures a healthier public health infrastructure and subsequently healthier quality of life for all.

Larry Jones, Director of Family and Health Services in Orange County Government, spoke of the success that has been attained in Orange County with the formation of strong community partnerships and collabrative arrangements. Larry introduced Karen Van Caulil, Executive Director of the health Council of East Central Florida. Karen outlined the agenda for the remainder of the day and presented the 2004 Comprehensive Assessment for Tracking Community Health CATCH data. The Orange County CATCH provides data at the state, county and zip code level for over 100 health indicators in 11 differenc categories. The Orange County Hispanic CATCH provides data at the state and county level. These data have been very helpful in identifiying the leading causes of martality and morbidity. Havaing data at the zip code level facilitates targeting the affected population and allows for effective intervention.

Patricia Maddos, President of the Winter Park Health Foundation, announced the completion of the Community health Assessment Survey. The WPHF and the commuity Healty Improvement Council sponsored the survey with the assistance of the Health Council. The 2004 survey was conducted in all four counties in the District; Brevard Orange, Osceola and Seminole. It was prepared by Professional Research Consultants, Inc., the same firm that conducted the 1999 survey. Bruce Lockwood, Director of the Commmunity Health Division at PRC, presented the findings for Orange County.

Community members were energized after hearing the various presentations. The working lunch allowed for facilitaed focused dialogue to ascertain community prespective and gain additional insight on unexpected outcomes. An opportunity was provided to all attendees to sign up for subcommittees that would further probe the assessments completed to date as well as participating in the future MAPP assessments.

The Local Public Health System (LPHS) Assessment committee met in mid- March to begin work on the LPHS performance assessment instrument. This is a MAPP tool that has been designed to help us improve the quality and performance of public health practices. Dialogue between the public, private, and volunatry entities will identify the strengths and weakness of our system and provide valuable information needed for effective interventions. The Florida Department of Health has mandated that all local public health departments complete this assessment by June 10, 2005. Orange County is positioned to meet this date having completed 50% of the assessment to date.

The four MAPP subcommittees have begun work on the Forces of Change Assessment. This assessment looks at our environment from various perspectives (;egally, socially, technologically, polically, environmentally, ethically, economically and scientifically) to identiry patterns, trends and factors that we have very little control of yet can influence our community in many ways.

The Orange County Health Report Card has been completed. This looks at overall health as the result of a combination of personal behaviors, the community environment, and health care system policies and practices. The criteria have been identified and tracked for every state and ranking determined according to a preprietary calcuation.