Gaston Community Healthcare Commission

in Partnership with Gaston Together 

Gaston Community Healthcare Commission’s (GCHC) mission is to develop a workable community-wide agenda to improve the health status of the citizens of Gaston County.  This work is done through a network of organizations and people involved in health care access, funding, distribution of resources and allocation of those resources.  In 1994, the GCHC received certification as a Healthy Carolinians 2000 Task Force by the Governor’s Task Force on Health Objectives for the year 2000. The GCHC was last recertified in 2001.

The GCHC has created six Task Force Groups to accomplish their mission.

Task Forces

Childhood Health Promotion & Protection: works to inform and develop skills and arrange for needed services that will allow parents to know of and be able to access services and programs needed for a healthy life for their children. It addresses children’s health needs through the SAFE KIDS Coalition and parenting/grand parents as parents support groups. They have developed new actions plans to reduce the number of deaths and injuries suffered by children in automobile accidents as well as reducing the number of children abused and neglected in Gaston County. The project group implements car seat checks and creates numerous informative pamphlets and brochures on child safety as well as providing numerous educational children’s programs. They are currently forming a partnership with the Interagency Child Abuse Council to develop goals for the upcoming year to address child abuse and neglect.
Parish Nurse Health Cabinet: addresses health education and prevention through a variety of screening programs. There are currently two programs: Belmont Parish Nurse sponsored by First Presbyterian, Queen of the Apostles and First Methodist, and the Gastonia Parish Nurse sponsored by First United Methodist, Myers Memorial Methodist and First Methodist of Stanley. An Oversite Advisory Board is being organized and future expansion plans are in progress.
Fitness and Nutrition Council: Has as its primary purpose to encourage proper nutrition and fitness for all ages. The lead organization for this task force is the Gaston County Health Department. They have many major initiatives and projects:

	Gaston on the Move is their major initiative designed to increase activity through establishing walking groups.
	Fitness is Treatment (FIT) was created to increase physical activity and the circulation of nutrition-related information.
	Dogs on the Move is a program to encourage dog owners to regularly walk their dogs and get physical activity in return.
	Cart Smart Grocery Store Tour offered to groups and registered nutritionists and dietitians on CD-Rom to help determine healthy eating habits while shopping.
	Girls on the Run is a non-competitive, running program that helps girls increase their self-confidence and prepares them for a lifetime of self-respect and healthy living. This program is administered by the Gaston County Health Department.
	Winning Moves, a program incorporating the Winner’s Circle School nutrition program and Families Eating Smart, Moving More, is the outgrowth following the Youth Obesity Summit held in the fall of 2004. The program aims to increase resources and support for youth to participate in physical activity and healthy eating. The program is in partnership with Gaston County Schools, the Gaston County Health Department and the Gaston County Family YMCA.

• Community Wellness Education: focuses on delivering consistent health messages to the public. The current focus is to develop ways to get information into the community on depression, suicide prevention, substance abuse and access to care through such aids as brochures, public service announcements and their Hope Cards. Progress is being made towards creating a weblink for community mental health issues to be connected to the Gaston Together Website.
  
• Adolescent Sexual Health: Began as an Ad-Hoc group at the request of the GCHC. This group held an Adolescent Sexual Health Summit in April 2005. Recommendations from the Summit will form the foundation goals for the new project group, Adolescent Sexual Health. Focus areas will include educating the public through the community, parents and the schools.
  
• Workplace Wellness: Providing a network for communication flow of preventive healthcare Best Practices among employees in Gaston County. This group will also seek resources to encourage compliance with preventative healthcare measures. Organizational meetings are scheduled to be held during the fall of 2005.

These two task forces have been successfully transferred to other organizations:

• Healthy Choices: mission is to develop a program to help Gaston County students learn to make appropriate choices when coping with stressful events. The current focus is juvenile/school violence administered through the Quest program for middle school students. This program is part of Gaston County Schools’ Safe and Drug Free School Federal Grant program and is now administered by the Gaston County school system.
  
• Bessemer City Health Care Center: a school-linked, community-based health care center. The Center is governed by the Advocates for Healthy Citizens, Inc., a board of school, community and health care representatives and is affiliated with Gaston Family Health. It now offers a bilingual provider – English/Spanish. The BCHCC has also recently moved into a newly expanded and remodeled office in downtown Bessemer City and will be administered and staffed by Gaston Family Health Services.
  
• For more information on the task forces click here.