Commissioners meet as health board

By on Monday, October 11th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

WALLA WALLA – The Walla Walla County Board of Commissioners, who also serve as the board of health, will consider two grants totaling $18,000 at its meeting at 10 a.m. today (Monday). The grants are for the Walla Walla Department of Community Health.

The first grant proposal supports the Walla Walla County Department of Community Health’s work to ensure medical providers deliver oral health services to children under six. The grant will allow DCH’s Access to Baby and Child Dentistry (ABCD) coordinator to join a collaborative with Arcora Foundation, a non-profit agency based in Washington state. The focus will be on the integration of dental and medical treatment for the county’s most vulnerable low-income children who are on Medicaid. The coordinator will develop, test, adapt and scale change ideas, plus refer children to ABCD dentists for care/treatment when needed.

The second grant, in partnership with the Washington State Department of Health and Trust for America’s Health, promotes an age-friendly public health system to improve the health and well-being of older adults in Walla Walla County and Washington state. The focus is to explore and expand public health’s roles in healthy living by improving health equity among the older adult population, building new partnerships, enhancing data collection, facilitating local health department and tribal health engagement in older health and well-being.

The meeting will be streamed on WebEx. The access code is 146 784 0290.