\n<\/p>\n
Healthy St. Mary\u2019s Partnership Meeting Highlights Focus on Community Health Needs<\/strong><\/p>\n At the recent Healthy St. Mary\u2019s Partnership meeting, co-chair Kelsey Bush made light of the occasion by comparing it to the \u201cDetroit Auto Show,\u201d but instead of unveiling shiny new cars, the group introduced vital focus areas aimed at addressing the health needs of the community.<\/p>\n The Healthy St. Mary\u2019s Partnership is a local organization dedicated to understanding the health challenges faced by residents and offering necessary support. Dr. Meena Brewster, the health officer for the St. Mary\u2019s County Health Department, explained that this year marked a significant step as the group gathered feedback through surveys to form specific focus groups. These groups are centered around topics such as healthy eating, active living, access to care, social transformation, and behavioral health crisis response.<\/p>\n Bush emphasized the importance of regularly revisiting community health priorities, stating, \u201cWhat we see as a pressing issue today might evolve into another challenge tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n The “Healthy Eating, Active Living” group will tackle chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes by promoting physical activity and reducing nicotine use. Meanwhile, the “Access to Care Team” aims to identify obstacles that prevent individuals from obtaining essential medical services, including financial struggles and insufficient healthcare providers.<\/p>\n The “Social Transformation Action Team” will work on improving access to housing, employment, education, and nutritious food. Additionally, the “Crisis Response and Behavioral Health Team” will focus on tackling crime, preventing domestic violence, and providing resources to those in need. Community members can get involved with these action teams by visiting the Healthy St. Mary\u2019s website.<\/p>\n Bush underscored the significance of collaboration in the community: \u201cWe always need to continue to grow to make this a better message because it\u2019s all of our work.\u201d<\/p>\n Building a Stronger Workforce in Healthcare<\/strong><\/p>\n Another key discussion point at the meeting was addressing the issue of primary care access, especially in rural areas, as many individuals face challenges in finding healthcare providers. Brewster noted that this shortage stems from a lack of pathways into the healthcare profession.<\/p>\n In a panel moderated by Brewster, various experts discussed strategies for bolstering the healthcare workforce. Participants included Scott Smith, the Superintendent of Schools, Bill Roberts, an anthropology professor at St. Mary\u2019s College, and Dr. Leah Millstein, an associate professor at the University of Maryland.<\/p>\n Scott Smith shared that St. Mary\u2019s public school students begin focusing on college and career readiness as early as sixth grade. The digital platform Schoolinks helps students understand education prerequisites and salary expectations for different careers, including those in healthcare.<\/p>\n At Great Mills High School, students can engage in the STEM Academy, while the Dr. James A. Forrest Career and Technology Center offers health-oriented programs. The school district is also enhancing its apprenticeship programs, allowing students to gain paid work experience in their fields of interest.<\/p>\n Roberts highlighted that St. Mary\u2019s College aims to introduce a public health major, and a new master’s program in counseling psychology has been launched this year to help mitigate the mental health care shortage in rural regions. He remarked, \u201cIn addition to having food deserts, we also have mental health deserts here.\u201d<\/p>\n To further support healthcare access, the University of Maryland\u2019s School of Medicine has initiated a rural scholars program targeting workforce development on the eastern shore.<\/p>\n Smith concluded, \u201cThe connection between these educational opportunities helps us create pathways for students into their desired professions. It\u2019s an important goal for us to explore: how do we build that bridge?\u201d<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Healthy St. Mary\u2019s Partnership Meeting Highlights Focus on Community Health Needs At the recent Healthy St. Mary\u2019s Partnership meeting, co-chair Kelsey Bush made light of the occasion by comparing it to the \u201cDetroit Auto Show,\u201d but instead of unveiling shiny new cars, the group introduced vital focus areas aimed at addressing the health needs of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1990,3140,4729,952,9962],"class_list":["post-44432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-mental-health","tag-social-issues","tag-workforce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}