On January 12, 2021, the Louisville Health Advisory Board (LHAB) kicked off the 2021 year with a virtual meeting. Over 70 invested members representing 36 social services, for-profit, and academic organizations with a common mission to improve community health gathered digitally to learn more about how to be a good advocate for the health and wellness of Louisvillians.
Gabriell Gassaway, Chief of Staff for Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness, kicked off the meeting. Gabriell joined for Dr. Sarah Moyer, Chief Health Strategist, Louisville Public Health and Wellness and Co-Chair of the LHAB. Dr. Moyer is focused on combatting the COVID-19 virus and has asked her Chief of Staff, Gabriell, to help lead the LHAB when she herself is not available.
Gabriell reminded the group that COVID-19 is still rampant in our community and continuing virtual meetings, washing our hands, and wearing masks are the best way to prevent spreading the deadly virus. Gabriell also shared Louisville Metro's COVID-19 Resource Center with coronavirus information, which includes vaccination distribution info.
Alicia Ariatti, Ariatti Advising, facilitator for the LHAB, then introduced Dr. Sheila Schuster. Dr. Sheila Schuster is a familiar face to anyone that frequents the halls of the Capitol in Frankfort. She currently heads the Advocacy Action Network (AAN), an umbrella organization that includes a number of advocacy groups addressing health care, mental health, social justice, and disability issues. AAN has coordinated the advocacy activities of Kentucky Voices for Health, whose goal is to increase health coverage and access to quality health care across the Commonwealth.
In October, Dr. Schuster introduced the group to what advocacy is, and why LHAB members would be good advocates.
In her presentation, Dr. Schuster introduced the group to the leaders in Frankfort and reviewed the legislative process. She also stressed the need to start building relationships with legislators long before you are trying to change policy. Providing a list of guiding questions for the committees to think about as they are starting to build relationships and begin the advocacy journey:
What legislators know you, your agency, your issue?
How many of those legislators are in key positions to help?
How can you increase your outreach?
Have you already run your idea “up the flagpole” with some key policy-makers?
What is your history of connections, personal, organizational, and on the issue?
She stressed that the legislative process is a long one that is not always rational, but policy is being made whether we advocate or not.
Dior Cotten, Population Health Strategy Lead and LHAB lead, Humana, and Keisha Smith, Associate Director – Population Health Strategy, Humana shared a pivotal step they are taking on their journey to improve health equity – Community of Opportunity. In 2015, Humana set a Bold Goal to improve the health of the communities they serve 20% by making it easier for people to achieve their best health. The next evolution of their Bold Goal is to improve health equity by making progress towards ensuring “every person has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible.” The work underway via the Community of Opportunity to identify and address root causes that drive social determinants of health (SDoH) will inform steps they can take to address health disparities in underserved communities of Louisville.
With this being the beginning of the year, many of the committees have not had a chance to convene. In an upcoming meeting, we will hear project updates from all committees. However, we were able to receive a quick update from Community Coordination of Care co-chair Tom Walton, MDiv, MS, Executive In Residence, University of Louisville regarding the committee’s eviction prevention and Respite to Residence program. Joe Bargione, co-chair of the Behavioral Health committee also provided an update on their suicide prevention work and we look forward to hearing more about the grant secured from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association (SAMHSA) for Kentucky Emergency Response for Suicide Prevention (KERSP). Last but not least, Whitney Austin, Executive Director and Founder of Whitney/Strong provided an update on the Crisis Aversion and Rights Retention (CARR) bill. CARR is a custom risk protection law for KY with an emphasis on both removing the firearm in times of crisis and getting the individual on a path toward help and recovery.
The meeting ended with the announcement that the LHAB will be holding hour-long meetings, like this one, every other month, in 2021, virtually as long as needed. With the pandemic continuing and a changing political landscape, there is much to share and discuss. The next LHAB bi-monthly meeting will be in March. Look for the Save the Date coming soon.
If you’d like to view this month’s meeting, you can do so here.