Every five years the Public Health Department releases a Community Health Improvement Plan with help from Community Partners and feedback from thousands in the community.
It is a roadmap for how the Public Health Department and community partners will work together to build a better county.
This year, the focus is on three specific priorities, which is down from eight priorities the county implemented over the past five years.
One of the priorities is mental health and substance use.
“Families can learn what they can do to stop their kids at home from engaging in substance abuse and they can recognize any mental health issues that are emerging,” Dr. Borenstein said.
SLO County Public Health Officer Dr. Penny Borenstein said healthy neighborhoods and access to care are another priority area.
“Under healthy neighborhoods, building parks, making bicycle traffic safe. Under health care access; it's not just about getting physicians into the community, it's nurses, physical therapists etc.”
The plan addresses the unique needs and strengths for San Luis Obispo County by looking at data from a community health assessment that was released in August of 2023, which nearly 4,000 people in the county responded to.
The plan was developed by SLO Health Counts, a collaboration of community members, nonprofits and government agencies throughout the county. It’s something Adyan Nazmi is part of.
“Health is the most fundamental thing we have. If we don't have health we really have nothing,” Nazmi said.
Nazmi also teaches at Cal Poly and wants to make sure opportunities and structure are in place so that people in the county can optimize their health.
“As a professor what I would like to do is leverage a community health improvement plan and some of the student power we have at Cal Poly and quest to push students out in the community to further the priorities of the community health improvement plan,” Nazmi said.
Dr. Borenstein shares her hopes for the county.
“We hope to be held accountable and we hope to have lots of conversations with the community about how they can go about bringing health improvements,” Dr. Borenstein said.
