Community Wellness in Erie County

Community Wellness

Erie County Clerk's Office's Top Priority

By Michael P. Kearns, Erie County Clerk

At the Erie County Clerk’s Office, we made community

wellness a top priority. That may sound strange - how is a county clerk’s office related to wellness? What we have found is that there are multiple ways for the Clerk’s Office to serve our community and go above and beyond traditional clerk’s office services. One of the ways we have done this is by creating the Clerk’s Wellness Collaborative (CWC).

According to the 2017 Robert Woods Johnson County Health Rankings Report, Erie County ranked 50th out of the 62 counties in New York. This upsetting score was a call to enact change within our community.

It was apparent that improving this substandard ranking was going to require a team effort by both elected officials and community health organizations. The Erie County Clerk’s Office serves hundreds of customers a day through our various departments. This large number of transactions each day offers us the unique ability to touch the lives of many and improve our poor ranking. Therefore, in January 2018, the Erie County Clerk’s Office launched the Clerk’s Wellness Collaborative.

Cardiovascular Health

Our first mission was a collaboration between the Erie County Clerk’s Office and Catholic Health System (CHS) Mercy Hospital. In working with health professionals, we determined that one way to help better community health is through sharing health information and providing services for residents where they wouldn’t normally see it.

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in Erie County and the number one cause of death in the United States. In fact, Erie County residents experience 33% more heart disease deaths than the average U.S. citizen. As part of American Heart Month in February and World Stroke Awareness Day in October, the Clerk’s Office and Catholic Health teamed up for two years in a row to offer free blood pressure screenings and carotid artery screenings at auto bureaus across the county.

The goal of the “Heart Healthy Auto Bureau Blood Pressure Screenings” and “Stroke Prevention Carotid Artery Screenings” was to enter into the non-traditional setting to promote healthier lives and help prevent heart disease and stroke in our community. The blood pressure and carotid artery screenings proved to be a great success. Registered nurses from CHS conducted 220 blood pressure screenings and found that 84 participants had high blood pressure. Of the 200 carotid artery screenings, 12 participants were found be at risk of stroke due to calcifications within the arteries.

Healthiest Districts Initiative

The next initiative under the Clerk’s Wellness Collaborative was the Healthiest Districts Initiative (HDI). The HDI is a collaborative effort between the Clerk’s Office, five school districts, and the Wellness Institute of Greater Buffalo. The initiative targeted health and wellness information and practices within our school communities. In working with leaders from the school districts, it became clear that one of their top health priorities was mental health. Working with the Mental Health Advocates of WNY, we were able to organize a Mental Health Staff Training. This training provided information and resources on how school districts can take proactive, instead of reactive, measures when it comes to addressing mental health in their schools.

The HDI also sought to expose students to the great health and wellness resources available in Erie County, such as our state parks. In May 2018, the HDI launched the first ever ‘HDI Parks Clean-Up Day’. Hundreds of students from five school districts visited three different NYS Parks in Erie County, where they worked together to help clean-up the park, get active outside, and socialize with students from different school districts. We are excited to continue this event in Spring 2019, which will be renamed “HDI Wellness in the Parks Day.”

Workplace Wellness

Office is workplace wellness opportunities for employees who wish to participate. We have teamed up with a local health instructor who is volunteering her time to put on a pilot program for Wednesday “Midday Meditations” at the Clerk’s Office.

We also have a continued partnership with Unyts Donate Life. In 2018, we saw an unprecedented 60% increase in the number of donor registrants from 2017.

To answer that original question about how a clerk’s office can be related to wellness, we can say that a clerk’s office has a unique opportunity to engage with our daily customers and connect with communities from across the county. At the Erie County Clerk’s Office, we have taken advantage of this opportunity by working to improve the health and wellness of our entire county.