The Maryland Commission on Public Health will hold the fourth of six regional meetings to hear input from community members to assess public health service access and delivery across Maryland.
The pandemic, opioid crisis, and growing mental health needs across the country have exposed a number of inefficiencies in the status quo approach to public health. During the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers in Maryland worked on a handful of bills to refine public health services for residents, but HB 214 – Commission on Public Health, in particular, was framed to consider the broad view of how a new administration should be considering the past and looking to the future of community health services.
MACo was excited to support this bill and advocate for more county input in the process. Those efforts included making sure three rather than two county health officers were on the commission, and that they would be representative of urban, suburban, and rural districts. Across all five workgroups under the commission, fifteen county health officers or representatives are members. July 30th will mark the fourth regional listening session held by the commission in 2024 and will take place in Montgomery County. This will be the part of the Central Maryland listening sessions and community members are encouraged to attend and share feedback.
