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Community health forum tackles issues, needs

5 mins read
Attendees at the Community Health Needs Assessment Forum listen as Nancy Birkhimer of the CDC highlights some of the data from a health needs assessment.
Attendees at the Community Health Needs Assessment Forum listen as Nancy Birkhimer of the CDC highlights some of the data from a health needs assessment.

JAY – Nearly 100 representatives of local health, education and social service agencies pooled their knowledge with Franklin County residents at the Spruce Mountain Middle School Thursday night, looking for ways to make public health improvements.

The forum follows the release of a report card, created by the state and its largest health care providers, on how Maine’s counties are managing in regards to public health. Forty-six “health professionals and community stakeholders” in Franklin County listed the top five health issues facing the county as obesity, drug and alcohol abuse, physical activity and nutrition, cardiovascular diseases and mental health.

Director Nancy Birkhimer of Maine Center for Disease Control presented data on a wide variety of public health issues, ranging from diabetes hospitalizations to private well arsenic testing to suicides and violent deaths. Franklin County’s median household income, over a four-year period from 2009 to 2013, was calculated at $41,626; significantly less than the state’s median household income of $48,453.

The data was designed to drive discussion among small groups, each of which then reported what they saw as Franklin County priorities when it came to community health. One of the top five health factors listed in the needs assessment was poverty.

The keynote speaker for the event was Donna Beegle, a nationally-renowned speaker and writer on poverty. She is the author of See Poverty, Be The Difference, a resource book for professionals who work with people in poverty, and An Action Approach to Educating Students in Poverty.

Donna Beegle
Donna Beegle

Beegle grew up in generational migrant labor poverty, leaving school to marry at the age of 15. She recalled a teacher telling her that she needed to stay in school to get a job. While the teacher referred to a career as a motivating factor, Beegle told the audience, she associated jobs with stress and separation from one’s family. That had been her experience.

“You’re not using the right motivators,” she said. “The words you’re using don’t make any sense.”

Those living with poverty used a different vocabulary, Beegle said. Education was associated with stress, doctors and health care were bad news; Beegle recalled sharing expired antibiotics and un-prescribed glasses when she was growing up. She assumed everyone kept their teeth in a cup after the age of 30.

“I thought people didn’t live past 60.”

Beegle earned her GED at the age of 26, receiving a doctorate in Educational Leadership within 10 years. Since then, she co-founded Communication Across Barriers, assisting communities seeking to understand and address poverty. The biggest barrier to this, Beegle said, was the failure to understand the different causes and types of poverty, as well as the segregation between the impoverished and the middle class. The perspective of those grappling with poverty was rarely brought into discussions on how to address it, Beegle said.

The small group discussions are partially aimed at that issue, in a bid to bring the public’s viewpoints into the community health discussion. Similar forums elsewhere in the state have led to changes in how transportation, domestic violence awareness, dental and mental health services are organized and provided.

Thursday’s forum follows a similar discussion taking place in the Mt. Blue Regional School District. In welcoming the audience, Jay Elementary School Principal Chris Hollingsworth thanked Superintendent Thomas Ward and the Safe Schools Committee, which consists of representatives from the community, local service agencies, Franklin Community Health Network, University of Maine at Farmington and the Farmington Police Department, for opening up the dialogue on poverty. Thursday’s event was designed to continue and add to that discussion, Hollingsworth said.

In addition to the Jay event, and another presentation at the Mt. Abram Regional High School, Beegle will lead a workshop at the Mt. Blue Campus for district staff Friday morning.

The Mt. Blue Regional School District is also conducting a public workshop for community members interested in adopting Beegle’s Opportunity Community Model to alleviate poverty on Friday, March 18, from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the Mt. Blue Campus Auditorium. Educators, service providers, first responders, human resources administrators, community volunteers, or community members are invited to join into the conversation.

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