The Berrien County Health Department has completed its strategic plan for 2024 through 2026.
Speaking to the Berrien County Board of Commissioners this week, Medical Officer Guy Miller said the department has been working on the plan since last year as it seeks to identify top priorities and address possible shortcomings.
Miller said the document is divided into three pillars: community health, environmental health, and family programs, with goals laid out for each.
One priority moving forward is to increase community trust and awareness of public health.
“A lot of it comes down to transparency, helping the community, helping people know what the health department is doing, what we’re involved in,” Miller said. “We don’t just focus on COVID all the time. That might be a common misconception. We do a lot of different things throughout the community, including enforcement, like in our environmental health division, and regulation with food and sanitary systems.”
Miller said part of this will involve getting health department staff out in the community to meet with people.
“What can we do within the Berrien County Health Department to better free up our time, our availability to be more communicative back to our residents?”
Miller said the department will seek to increase employee satisfaction, workforce development, technology, and transportation. To attract more staff, he says it will emphasize the benefits available with health department jobs, things like paid time off.
Commissioner Bob Harrison said the Berrien County Board of Health supports the plan, adding it’s seen morale at the health department improve in the last couple of years.
