COLUMBIA — Boone County stakeholders said mental health, overall health care access, affordability and health insurance are among the largest unmet health care needs the county faces.
Boone Health collected input on Thursday from mid-Missouri residents to identify critical health concerns and priorities. A meeting is held every three years as a federal requirement to access feedback from the public.
About 50 people attended the meeting. The previous survey sent out to prepare for this meeting received about 600 responses. Meeting participants were from the Boone County community, including community leaders, business leaders, workers in mental health and medical departments.
“We wanted to get a large group, a very diverse group, to showcase all the different perspectives that we know are important to see in a town hall like this,” said Christian Basi, the director of marketing and communications for Boone Health.
During the meeting, participants voted on health care needs that meet their health care priorities.
Community participant Mary Clark, a grant writer, said it is essential to hear from different parts of the community.
“Some of the businesses in town, many different nonprofits, all came together to get their perspectives and try to work together to meet some of those needs because everybody is coming from a different place,” Clark said.
Boone Health will go over the priority needs, meet with a smaller group in two months and then come up with a plan with the priorities that received the most feedback.
“The Columbia community and the Mid-Missouri community, the amount of people that we had here, their dedication and commitment to coming in and having a conversation in the middle of their workday showed how much this community truly cares,” Basi said.
