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Dr. Trice Gravatte spoke about all the areas in which the local health dept. is involved.
Dr. Trice Gravatte, a Culpeper family doctor physician, has been RRHD health director since Feb. 1.
Dr. Trice Gravatte talks about local cases of heart disease during Wednesday’s State of the Community program on Zoom.
Cases of fatal overdoses in 2020 and 2021 in the five-county health district.
Regarding the state of public health in Culpeper County, “Things look pretty good.”
That was the message Wednesday from Dr. Trice Gravatte, the brand new health director of the five-county health district, speaking in the waning days of the two-year COVID pandemic. He made the remarks during the annual State of the Community program of the Culpeper Chamber of Commerce, on Wednesday.
A local family doctor for 33 years, Gravatte said he visited Rockwater Park earlier this week and was pleased to see folks playing Frisbee and kids on the playground.
“I saw a lot of smiling faces without masks, thank God. What a nice time of the year when we are starting to think about Delta as being an airline and Corona being a beer,” he said.
COVID case counts continue to drop in Culpeper, the health district director said.
“I bring you good news of the state of our health that the most recent report from our hospital is that there were zero COVID admissions…Right now we are working with our state health department to help transition Culpeper to a world of endemic and also a world where we are being proactive, not reactive,” Gravatte said.
One in five citizens of Culpeper had a reported case of the novel coronavirus, he said, sharing end data of the pandemic.
There were other cases not reported, Gravatte said, and 143 deaths.
“As we try to give you good news today, I want to share with you the rates are down and that right now we’ve taken leave from where England is. With that note, we are excited about encouraging people to get boosted,” he said.
COVID booster shoots are available at all local health departments in the district as well as doctors’ offices, he said. Culpeper’s COVID community transmission level is in the green, Gravatte said.
“Folks have the capacity to follow health department guidelines and wear a mask only if they want, without any strong encouragement from us,” he said.
The health department works in various other areas aside from the pandemic including environmental health, restaurant inspections, family planning, immunizations, rabies investigations, drug overdose prevention and nutrition for women, infants and children.
The health department also coordinates with groups such as the PATH Foundation and Culpeper Wellness on addressing public health issues, including chronic diseases and cancer, Gravatte said.
“We work with drug treatment, community centers, elected officials and faith institutions. As we think about the health in our community we also offer how it relates to U.S. data,” the health district director said.
“There are challenges in heart disease, cancer and that ‘c’ word we are all dealing with, too,” he said of COVID.
Each of the five counties in Rappahannock-Rapidan Health District have higher incidences of heart disease compared to Virginia and U.S., according to a chart Gravatte showed.
In Culpeper, around 6 percent of adults have heart disease, around 5.8 percent in Fauquier, 7 percent in Orange, and 8 percent each in Madison and Rappahannock. Statewide, less than 4 percent of Virginians have heart disease and it’s around 4 percent nationwide, the chart showed.
“As we think about issues in our community, we want to be mindful we have a lot of great, healthy, smart people on this call committed to taking care of themselves and our community.
“But there are people who aren’t on this call, who can’t get on this call or may not be able to see it on TV when it comes out,” the health district director said. “Those people are some of the ones who are higher risk for heart disease we see in our community. As we try to work with nutrition and other areas we have in our control we hope to bend the curve in that.”
Culpeper County is also above the national and state average for cancer death rates, according to a chart shown during State of the Community. The pandemic greatly diminished access to preventative care, Gravatte said, noting recent efforts at the health department helping people get tested for breast and cervical cancer and to quit smoking.
“That’s on our radar and we want to get Culpeper at or below average for the U.S. and our district,” he said.
Gravatte said the health department is also committed to driving down opiate overdoes.
“In our community, those rates have been higher than Virginia for a while, they’re ticking up everywhere, and we are bringing the tools we have to bring a rescue agent called Narcan available to everybody who asks for it, he said, showing another slide. “The numbers right there speak for themselves—we don’t want to be the leader in our district anymore.”
Social services, law enforcement, the hospital, and the community services board are among the partners working with VDH, Gravatte said. “We are working hard in front and behind the scenes to change those numbers,” he said.
Mental health and suicide also remains a problem, Gravate said: “We are committed to working to bend the curve there…all of those things are on our watch as your health department.”
The brand new health district director, on the job since Feb. 1, celebrated the volunteers who help the health department serve the community.
“We couldn’t do what we do without their support,” Gravatte said.
In 2020 and 2021, volunteers with the Medical Reserve Corps gave more than 12,000 hours. Corps membership grew during COVID from 293 volunteers to 520.
Gravatte concluded his comments, “Culpeper is going the right way. We have your back and are honored to be in the program of wellness here.”
Read in Sunday’s edition about other State of the Community presentations from Lisa Peacock, Bryan Rothamel and Carl Stafford.
abrophy@starexponent.com
540/825-4315
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A news reporter in Culpeper since 2000, I got my start in the business as a youngster delivering papers after school for the Elizabeth Daily Journal in urban New Jersey.
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Dr. Trice Gravatte spoke about all the areas in which the local health dept. is involved.
Dr. Trice Gravatte, a Culpeper family doctor physician, has been RRHD health director since Feb. 1.
Dr. Trice Gravatte talks about local cases of heart disease during Wednesday’s State of the Community program on Zoom.
Cases of fatal overdoses in 2020 and 2021 in the five-county health district.
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