Three members of the Governor's Public Health Commission, from left, Dr. Kristina Box, state health commissioner; former state Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville; and Brian Tabor, president of the Indiana Hospital Association, participate in a public listening tour Friday at Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting. Staff photo by Dan Carden
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WHITING — Health and community leaders working in Northwest Indiana and beyond had no shortage of suggestions Friday for how to restructure public health programs and services across the Hoosier State.
The recommendations included everything from improving the pay, working conditions and development pipeline of health care workers to improving data collection and distribution to maintaining COVID-level financial resources for local public health agencies.
"You want people choosing public health as a career," said Connie Rudd Hannon, director of nursing at the Porter County Health Department. "We want the best and brightest to come and stay at the health department."
Listening carefully to each speaker were five members of the Governor's Public Health Commission, including Dr. Kristina Box, the state health commissioner; former state Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville; and Brian Tabor, president of the Indiana Hospital Association.
The panel is touring the Hoosier State, including a well-attended stop at Calumet College of St. Joseph, seeking input on state and local health issues prior to putting together a public health reform proposal for action by the 2023 Indiana General Assembly.
Several speakers at the Whiting college, including Sharon Johnson-Shirley, superintendent of Lake Ridge Schools, and state Rep. Pat Boy, D-Michigan City, stressed the need to bolster the availability of mental health care, particularly for kids and teens, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that scrambled everyday life and normal routines, perhaps permanently.
Others pointed out Indiana was hardly a healthy state heading into the pandemic with elevated levels of maternal and infant mortality, obesity, substance use disorder, and smoking rates.
Danita Johnson Hughes, CEO of Edgewater Health, and Carl Toren, chief medical officer at HealthLinc Community Health Center, among others, urged the commission not to forget those issues, where small lifestyle changes can make big differences, alongside the more challenging reforms under consideration.
The commission also was told of the dire need for more health care workers and emergency medical technicians to replace those who left the field amid the COVID-19 pandemic; shortages of school nurses in Hammond and elsewhere; the importance of sharing public health messaging with non-English speaking communities; difficulties getting vaccine records from Illinois for children relocating to Indiana with their families; long delays for out-of-state medical personnel to acquire an an Indiana license to practice; and the lack of adequate bus routes to Region hospitals.
Afterward, Box said the information shared with the commission was "incredibly important" and will go into shaping the commission's recommendations to the governor, as well as the legislative proposal the governor submits to the General Assembly.
"We always get good turnout and good support from the community up here in Northwest Indiana, and we appreciate it," Box said.
Kenley, who previously led the budget-writing Senate Appropriations Committee, said the commission's report almost certainly will call for increasing state funding for local public health departments.
"They are the people that touch the citizens, and provide the services, and we need to continue that and take advantage of it," Kenley said. "Based on our past history, Indiana hasn't really done hardly anything in this area, and it's kind of ripe to be an important area of budget consideration."
Kenley also applauded Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb for having the courage to take on public health reform amid the COVID-19 pandemic when there's no shortage of less complicated issues Holcomb could more easily tackle before his final term as governor expires in January 2025.
The commission is expected to submit its final report to the governor in late summer or early fall to give Holcomb time to incorporate public health priorities in his 2023 legislative agenda before the General Assembly convenes in January.
"I don't think there will be a lot of surprises, and I think the things that you're hearing in here will be the types of things that are being discussed," Kenley said.
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