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Q&A
Council Member Louis questions DOHMH on maternal health, trauma recovery, and reproductive health
1:26:02
ยท
4 min
Council Member Farah Louis engages in a Q&A session with DOHMH Acting Commissioner Michelle Morse, focusing on three main areas: maternal health disparities, trauma recovery programs, and reproductive health concerns related to chemical exposure. Commissioner Morse provides responses and commitments to follow up on specific inquiries.
- Morse clarifies that the FY25 budget for birth equity is about $58 million with no planned decreases for FY26
- DOHMH is reviewing trauma recovery centers and their effectiveness
- The department is following research on associations between product use and health outcomes related to reproductive health
Farah Louis
1:26:02
Thank you chairs and good to see you commissioner and CFO Anderson.
1:26:07
I have three quick questions so I'm gonna just do rapid fire because the time is limited.
1:26:12
And as you stated in your testimony, York City continues to face alarming maternal health rates with black and brown women disproportionately affected as we've seen in high profile cases in several hospitals across our city.
1:26:25
So I wanted to know how does DOHMH justify the cuts in the city's worsening maternal health rates over the past year?
1:26:35
I know you've mentioned it earlier but if you could elaborate on that.
1:26:39
Second question is in regards to trauma recovery.
1:26:42
I'm very concerned about the budget reductions within the preliminary plan which raised significant concerns about the city's ability to respond to its ongoing mental health crisis especially for our vulnerable youth.
1:26:53
Of the total mental health services budget in FY '20 '5 and FY '20 '6, how much was specifically allocated for trauma recovery programs?
1:27:03
And I specifically asked this question because in neighborhoods experiencing persistent gun violence, a lack of trauma response and remediation services can contribute to cycles of violence.
1:27:14
How will DOHMH address the potential consequences of these cuts particularly during upcoming summer months where we know youth are out and about?
1:27:23
And last question is regarding reproductive health.
1:27:27
Many consumer products including cosmetics, plastics and household goods contain chemicals linked to reproductive and uterine health issues disproportionately impacting women of color with 42,600,000.0 investment in the FY '20 '6 preliminary budget.
1:27:48
Will DOHMH invest funds to expand the public health laboratory scope to include research and testing on product safety and its impact on reproductive and uterine health especially in the absence of adequate protections.
1:28:05
So those are the three.
1:28:07
Reproductive health, trauma recovery, and gun violence.
Michelle Morse
1:28:11
Thank you councilmember.
Farah Louis
1:28:12
Maternal mortality.
Michelle Morse
1:28:13
Yes.
1:28:13
You councilmember Lewis.
1:28:15
I'll start with the first question around our black maternal health goal.
1:28:20
Our goal, again, is to decrease black maternal mortality rates by ten percent by 02/1930, and we have a lot of work to do to meet that goal.
1:28:30
What I haven't I think we might again have slightly different numbers.
1:28:35
Our FY twenty five budget for everything related to birth equity is about $58,000,000 across multiple different programs.
1:28:44
And we are not planning any decreases to that budget in FY '26.
1:28:51
There may be some differences in city council designation numbers and in some of our federal grants.
Farah Louis
1:28:57
And that's specifically it, just the adjustments.
1:28:59
It'll be good to be clear on that.
1:29:01
Maybe not right now because time is limited, but if we could get that information.
Michelle Morse
1:29:04
We can follow-up with you on that, absolutely.
1:29:07
We also have a mandate to do a maternal mental health pilot that is currently unfunded, so that is another area within our maternal health work that we're hoping to be able to make more progress on in the future.
1:29:24
For the trauma recovery programs specifically, think,
Sandy Nurse
1:29:29
are you
Michelle Morse
1:29:29
referring to trauma recovery centers?
1:29:31
Okay, so our team is looking into the trauma recovery centers, the services they provide, the impact, and the outcomes, and we are happy to follow-up with counsel about our findings as we do a bit more of a deeper dive to understand the model and its effectiveness.
1:29:49
However, what I would say is that we do certainly still have services and support through a number of other programs including our mobile crisis teams and other service delivery that theoretically could help to support some of what you're describing.
1:30:06
And then the final question I think was about reproductive health and your concern, and our concern also about chemicals that may be causing fibroids and other uterine, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I think you're talking about some of the chemical relaxers that have been shown to
Farah Louis
1:30:27
And also household items and other factors all
Linda Lee
1:30:30
in all.
Michelle Morse
1:30:31
And household items and other factors.
1:30:32
So we'd be happy to follow-up with you to share some of the work we've done in that space in the past.
1:30:38
We continue to follow very closely all of the research and data that's emerging about associations between use of different products and health outcomes.
Yanece Cotto
1:30:50
Thank you so much.
1:30:51
Thank you.