Mayors Discuss Health and Wellness at KCMS Annual Meeting

Jim Braibish • Oct 23, 2020

Communities throughout the Kansas City area are working to improve health and wellness at the local level. At the 2020 KCMS Virtual Annual Meeting on October 21, a panel of area mayors described recent health and wellness successes achieved in their communities:

  • Mayor Peggy Dunn of Leawood, Kan., cited the Johnson County Co-Responder program in which mental health clinicians from the Johnson County Mental Center are embedded within police departments. She also noted that Leawood offers free gun locks and a drug take-back program.
  • Mayor David Alvey of Kansas City, Kan., highlighted his community’s response to COVID-19 , for which he brought together a coordinating group including health care, public health, emergency management, social work and more. The group met daily to bring information from their constituencies and in turn communicate information back to them. Public health decisions were made on the advice of health professionals and not on the basis of politics.
  • Mayor Eileen Weir of Independence, Mo., discussed how Independence has been a leader on many public health issues such as utility conservation and environmental protection. The city recently made a major investment in public transportation to help improve resident access to education, employment and health care. She praised fellow Independence resident and KCMS Lifetime Achievement Award winner Donald Potts, MD, for his efforts over the years to achieve clean indoor air and Tobacco 21 legislation.
  • Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, Mo., noted how the city has been working to address the root causes and disparities that underly such issues as violent crime. The Health Department contributes to policymaking in housing, criminal justice and economic development. The Healthy Homes program provides minimum health standards for rental housing. Moderator Bridget McCandless, MD, MBA, reminded the audience that Kansas City received the Culture of Health prize in 2015 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The mayors also encouraged physicians to get more involved by speaking out and sharing their stories with the public. “Remain as civically engaged as you possibly can,” Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Quinton Lucas said. “The loudest voices I hear from each day say the mask mandate is the worst thing we’ve ever done. Use what you know and what you see to help the public understand (these measures), and helps amplify the message that Dr. (Lee) Norman, Dr. (Rex) Archer, Dr. (Samni) Areola and others are sharing each day.”

They also noted that cities are looking for physicians to serve on various appointed boards and commissions, even outside of health care. Mayor Lucas pointed out that the city has some 900 positions on boards and commissions. Leawood, Kan., Mayor Peggy Dunn commented, “People look to physicians for their wisdom, counsel and expertise.”

Thanks to moderator Bridget McCandless, MD, MBA, and host Daphne Bascom, MD, PhD.

Also at the Annual Meeting, the KCMS 2020 Awards were presented.

Thank you to the Annual Meeting sponsors:

22 Jan, 2024
To Members of the Kansas City Medical Society: Greetings, My name is Greg Unruh , and I am honored to be the President of the Society for 2024. By way of a short introduction, I practice anesthesiology at the University of Kansas Medical Center. I have been involved in and have held leadership positions in local, state, and national societies of organized medicine throughout the years, both in anesthesiology and non-anesthesiology societies. I was an officer in the Wy-Jo Medical Society when we merged with the Kansas City Medical Society and have remained on the Board throughout all of the reorganization. I am very proud of how far we have come, It has put us in position to speak for physicians on both sides of the state line. We have expanded our Leadership Council, and we have passionate members of our Board of Directors. I want to commend our Immediate Past President, Dr. Carole Freiberger for her leadership in 2023. She provided us with an optimistic, can-do Presidency that advanced the Society and the practice of medicine in the KC area, so thank you Carole! In addition, we have welcomed the steady leadership of our executive director, Mr. Micah Flint. We appreciate him keeping us on track and organizing our many activities. Several of the things I mention will be dealt with in more detail throughout this communication, but I wanted to highlight some the several areas the Board has chosen for our work this coming year: Advocacy We want to advocate on both sides of the state line working with both the Missouri State Medical and Kansas Medical Societies (MMSA and KMS) on behalf of physicians. On the Kansas side, the legislature is working on many issues that affect us including scope of practice, vaccinations, Medicaid reimbursement and Medicaid expansion. We are working with KMS to provide testimony and influence our legislative representatives. Support for our Foundation We want to support our crown jewel whole heartedly, the Kansas City Medical Society Foundation which continues to be a model for advocacy and education, as well as our charitable care program which provides immense benefits for our uninsured or under insured patients. The Foundation supported expansion of Medicaid on the Missouri side and is advocating tirelessly for expansion on the Kansas side. Ms. Karole Bradford is our Executive Director. Opioid abuse We have been working to help stem the tide of opioid abuse through education and visibility. We are in the process of putting together TikTok videos about the dangers of opioid abuse produced by local high school students and targeted at high school students at their level and their preferred communication platform. We also have activities targeted to school district officials and several of our Board members and members provide advice around opioid use disorder and school policies. Wellness and Suicide Prevention Our focus has been on removing the stigma that sometimes attaches to physicians help-seeking. We have been advocating for health systems and hospitals to remove credentialing language that could impede a physician from seeking help. Several systems are reviewing their language and are now trying to focus on current, not historical, mental health issues or substance use that could affect safe practice. We are also working to participate in Physician Suicide Awareness Day in September. Welcoming New Members If you are a current member, thank you! I hope you have found our activities to be meaningful for you and your practice. Please consider asking your colleagues to join our collective voices. If you are not a member, please consider joining-we’d love to have you! In conclusion, I’m excited about the year to come and look forward to hearing any and all thoughts and ideas for the Society moving forward. Thanks, and best regards, Greg
29 Nov, 2023
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