Health Council Strives to Improve Health Outcomes Across the County

By Misty Cryer

Residents of Carlsbad may hear about or see Eddy County Health Council doing outreach around town at various events. It is obvious that they are concerned with improving health in our community, but many don’t know exactly what they do or how they work. The council has obtained nonprofit status and would like to get more community members involved so they can serve the county the best they can.

“Our purpose is to facilitate opportunities for communications and collaborations that pertain to community health concerns among community organizations, agencies, and individuals,” said Mia Peacock, Coordinator for Eddy County Health Council. She explained that the council’s annual initiatives are guided by its community health improvement plan (CHIP Plan).

“We are looking for more people to get involved in our council,” said Peacock. “I want people to understand that we are here to serve them and to listen to their needs, to develop initiatives that they would like to see,” she said.

The health council is open to everyone in the community, and they work with many people from the state. “We have 14 community health partners, and we collaborate with them all the time,” said Peacock.

The council does surveys, which Peacock said provide a lot of information. “I think it’s best for us to hear from our county more and having direct outreach and interactions with them,” she said.

Some of the initiatives the council is currently focused on include women’s health access to care, harm reduction, food security and nutrition, access to healthcare, and health literacy. “Last year, we also got to do behavioral health initiatives, a part of the Senate Bill 3,” said Peacock.

At the beginning of the year, Peacock said the council conducted a women’s health access survey to see whether women were having trouble paying for the costs of breast and cervical screenings. “We found out that women were actually having trouble getting access to certain resources like transportation, so we thought we would host an event to kind of connect women to those services and businesses in Eddy County,” she said.

A women’s health conference is scheduled for August 15. “It is called Pearls of Wellness,” said Peacock.

“We are collaborating with Women for a Better Carlsbad on that event,” she said, adding that there will be speakers, a panel session with healthcare providers, and booths to share resources with women.

The harm reduction initiative is basically an umbrella that covers mental health, suicide prevention, naloxone, overdose prevention, and education. “Eddy and Lea counties have the highest rates of overdose in the state,” said Peacock. “We are working with the state to educate our communities, and we offer naloxone for free; we offer trainings, and we offer harm reduction kits,” she said.

To address food security and nutrition, Peacock said the council works with other organizations to reduce hunger and provide nutritional information. “We have a community garden at Southeast New Mexico College (SENMC),” she said, adding that fruits and vegetables from the garden are made available to community members in need when they are harvested, and that they host educational workshops there.

On July 25, a plant trading event is scheduled in the community garden at SENMC. “This will give people an opportunity to come see our community garden and to exchange plant clippings, seeds, and things like that,” said Peacock.

To address access to healthcare and health literacy, Peacock said, the council wants to collaborate with the New Mexico Healthcare Authority on its directory system (https://yesnmconnect.nm.gov/), offer educational materials in both English and Spanish, and make them available on social media to connect with people.

“Those are some of the initiatives that we are doing,” said Peacock. “We would love to have more community feedback and community involvement, that way we can make sure that we are serving our county the best that we can.”

With membership open to everybody, Peacock said interested parties can be added to their contact list to receive email invites to the committee meetings and events. Interested parties can email her at coordinator@eddycountyhc.org. There are subcommittees that meet monthly that are open to everybody who wants to join, she said.

More information can be found on the website (https://www.eddycountyhc.org/) and through the social media accounts for the Eddy County Health Council.