The Sophie Beaumont building in downtown Green Bay is home the Brown County Department of Health and Human Services. (WTAQ/Casey Nelson)
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Brown County officials are laying the groundwork to improve community health. They’ve identified three areas of focus and are asking the community to get involved too.
Following a community health assessment, Brown County officials have identified three areas of focus to improve the community’s overall health. Those areas, as part of the Community Health Improvement Plan or CHIP, include mental health and substance use, healthy and safe homes along with pathways to healthcare.
“Launching this new three year plan will provide a focused roadmap to guide our work together, achieving significant improvements in health outcomes over time,” said Chrystal Woller with De Pere Public Health.
While substance use and mental health are more traditional public health issues, tackling healthy and safe homes along with pathways to healthcare are a bit different.
“For example, we know in pathways to healthcare which is similar to access to care that we want to make sure that people are getting the right care they need so they’re not going to the ER unnecessarily,” added Anna Nick with Brown County Public Health.
Brown County Public Health is once again teaming up with health-focused agencies, organizations and non-profits to tackle these issues.
According to Sharla Baenen, COO of Emplify Heath by Bellin, “We all strive to improve the health of our communities in our own ways and we know we can do more together than we can do alone.”
This is the second time healthy and safe homes has been on the radar.
“Obviously the biggest thing is we need more affordable house, so looking to communities and municipalities to build more affordable housing in our communities, but another part if working with landlords and building relationships with landlords so that we can get people who are unsheltered or in shelters into homes,” added Lydia Van Thiel with Greater Green Bay Blueprint to Prevent and End Homelessness
While those directly involved with CHIP are working on the issues, they say community involvement is key too.
Anna Nick added, “Anybody who sees this and they feel driven to work with us, it’s just going to make the impact even greater in Brown County.”
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