Jerry Messana, health officer at the Marquette County Health Department, speaks before the Marquette County Board regarding a potential revision to the county’s tobacco and vaping ordinance. (Journal photo by Kelsie Thompson)

MARQUETTE — The Marquette County Health Department is in the process of assembling teams and gathering public input to take action on the priorities identified in its five-year strategic plan, which was implemented Oct. 1 and to be completed in 2024.

Forty-five surveys with information on department goals were returned, 27 of which were filled out internally. From the surveys, seven priorities were gathered and outlined in the plan in order of importance, which are: funding, services, staffing, public awareness, Public Health 3.0 and Community Health Improvement Plan, performance management system and governance.

“This gives us direction for my staff, for myself, for the community,” said Jerry Messana, Marquette County Health Officer. “We had a lot of input on this. We had staff input, we had community input, we had board input, we had county board input.”

Seeking funding sources will be a primary goal of the department over the next three years as sufficient funds are critical in achieving the goals laid out in the strategic plan.

“Funding is a challenge for public health, so how can we increase funding? How can we be more effective with what we have?” Messana said.

Services provided by the department were listed among the top priorities whether it be expanding services offered or enhancing existing services to different populations. Looking into expanding aging services and increasing the sustainability of existing mental health programs will be some of the focuses, he said.

Messana plans to look into expanding aging services offered by the department specifically.

Staffing was another priority listed. Messana would like the department to be an optimal employer, he said.

“I want to be seen as the employer of choice so people want to come and work at the health department. I think a lot of people do, but are they coming for the right reasons?”

Due to lack of a marketing budget, increasing public awareness will be another goal of the health department over the next few years, he added.

The Public Health 3.0 and Community Improvement program handles population health, which requires the department to think about what factors negatively affect public health such as lack of housing, lack of education, access to healthcare, etc.

“Those are heavy lifts but how do we try to engage the community as a whole, work with our legislators to slowly but surely build the momentum to improve those social determinants of health and make people healthier because it’s no secret that if you don’t have housing you’re not going to be a healthy person,” Messana said.

Performance management is focused on improving department systems while tying health successes, trends and staff performance to measurements that can be evaluated, he said.

Governance refers to better educating members of the health departments advisory board, which is made up of volunteers of varying professions such as a doctor, a grant writer, a mental health provider, etc. so they can help work toward a healthier community, he said.

Having a strategic plan benefits the community because it keeps the actions of the health department in line with what the public feels is most important, Messana said.

“We want to make sure we aren’t going somewhere that doesn’t meet the community needs because ultimately we have surveyed the community through a Community Health Needs Assessment, so we want to use that to really direct what our services are,” he said.

The plan will be carried out by teams from the health department, which are being formed presently, who will be engaging with the community to gather input.

Typically the strategic plan is laid out over the course of three years, but due to the aggressive goals the health department is aiming for it was stretched out to five years, he said.

“I want to give us an opportunity to accomplish the tasks versus fail because I think if you can get successes, you can build momentum and then you’ll be able to carry out future projects,” he added.

Overall the strategic plan will help to focus the health department, which will result in a healthier community, Messana said.

“I think what you see in the community, environmental things, substance abuse, suicide, hepatitis C, neonatal abstinence syndrome, we have a lot of things in our community that need to be addressed and if you approach that with an organized approach you’ll have a better opportunity to tackle some of the issues we have here.”

Trinity Carey can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 206.