Pettis County Health Center earned its advanced level accreditation from the Missouri Institute for Community Health

The Pettis County Health Center is touting its recently announced advanced level accreditation from the Missouri Institute for Community Health — a yearlong process that makes Pettis one of only 19 accredited local public health agencies among Missouri’s 114 counties.

JoAnn Martin, the director of the Pettis County Health Center, said the accreditation is validation of the center’s proactive, community-based approach to addressing public health concerns.

“What this says to the public is there are set standards a public health agency is judged against and by being accredited, it says we met those standards,” Martin told the Democrat on Thursday.

The accreditation process included a self-study and an on-site visit by an accreditation team that looked at the center’s community engagement and policy-making strengths, as well as an assessment of how it delivers core services such as disaster response, environmental health and communicable disease prevention and control.

“The committee was impressed at how involved the Health Center and its staff are with our community. That was a real benefit for us,” Martin said.

In a press release announcing the accreditation, Janet Canavese, associate director for the Missouri Local Public Health Agency Accreditation Program, Missouri Institute for Community Health, said: “Achieving accreditation demonstrates Pettis County Health Center has voluntarily sought an independent evaluation of its compliance with state-of-the-art performance standards.”

Charged with a range of duties, including health inspections of Pettis County restaurants and the monitoring of septic systems, Martin said many people don’t realize the scope of the Health Center’s mission.

“Often when public health is doing our best work, no one notices because there are no health crises in the community,” Martin said.

Dave Clippert, Sedalia-Pettis County EMA Director, congratulated the Health Center’s accreditation on Friday, calling them “a major player in emergency response.”

Clippert said along with their active role in response planning and coordinating exercises, Martin and Health Center staff played a major role in organizing emergency shelter following last May’s tornado.

“That was not her responsibility or the Health Center’s responsibility. Most health departments would never have done that. They stepped up into something that was not their responsibility and they did it and gladly did it. I will always be grateful to them for doing that,” Clippert said. “The Health Center is an essential part of our emergency planning within Pettis County. We couldn’t do it without them.”

Noting the initial buzz and success of “Heathy U,” the Healthy Living Action Group’s (which includes Health Center representatives) weight loss and fitness initiative as a prime example of ways that numerous community organizations and individuals can join forces to address the health needs facing Pettis County, Martin said: “Healthy U is the perfect model for making inroads because we keep identifying the same challenges within our community. It is really a wonderful opportunity and something we can all build on.”

Martin said the accreditation process also allowed the Health Center to examine its practices and identify other ways to address community needs, from immunizations to weight loss and smoking cessation. Martin said the Health Center began meetings in January with key “stakeholders” including health organizations, social service agencies, elected officials and community leaders whose input, Martin said, is invaluable.

She said a new project launched following stakeholder meetings is a planned weekly “Community Health News” email newsletter that will serve as a single location for various health and wellness activities taking place throughout the community.

“This is going to be an opportunity for all these different groups to send activities they are working on to a central location,” Martin said. “Our goal is to reach as many people as we can.”

The newsletter will include calendar items as well as weekly health and nutrition tips and a short public health update to mark issues such as the start of flu season or a reminder for parents to get immunizations taken care ahead of the start of a new school year.

Martin said the Health Center has a number of informational resources and is prepared to help community groups plan and launch their own initiatives.

“Like Healthy U, these kinds of efforts are always more successful when the community takes ownership of them. We can’t run their efforts for them, but we have a variety of resources we can offer to help support them and make their efforts more successful,” Martin said.

For more information, visit their website at pettis.lphamo.org. The center’s office is located at 911 E. 16th St. and can be reached by phone at 827-1130.