Public Health to gain community outreach coordinator

Henry County Public Health will begin employing a community outreach coordinator after receiving approval to fill the new position by county supervisors during a meeting on Tuesday, March 26.

The community outreach coordinator will continue the responsibilities of the director of Healthy Henry County Communities, which had a memorandum of understanding with Public Health. The position of director of HHCC will be eliminated effective April 15.

After Public Health moved from the Henry County Health Center and became a county department on July 1, 2018, supervisors were told by the state auditor that it is illegal to pay the director of HHCC with county dollars because it is a 501(c) 3. The Board of Health has spent the last few months trying to find a way to retain the services of the current HHCC director while adhering to the Iowa Constitution.

HHCC will be split into a small, unpaid board of directors who maintains the 501(c) 3 status of HHCC. Other members will become a part of the HHCC coalition.

The community outreach coordinator will be a Public Health employee and assess the needs for, plans for and coordinate the implementation of community health programs, services and activities based on the Board of Health's priorities.

The job was posted for 10 business days until Friday, April 5. Shelley Van Dorin, Public Health director, said they have not received any other applications other than current HHCC director Kelly Carr.

The position of community outreach coordinator will be 'cost neutral,” Van Dorin said on Tuesday. A federal HRSA grant, which is a $1 million three-year grant that will end in 2020, pays 'almost 100 percent” of salary of director of HHCC and will go toward paying the community outreach coordinator.

Public Health employees are optimistic that Henry County will be recipients of a second HRSA grant.

Supervisor Marc Lindeen said he is 'very concerned” about the cost of a new Public Health employee, which is already built into Public Health's fiscal year 2020 budget. He also said that a future burden the county is facing is services for juvenile mental health and possibly ambulance services.

'We as supervisors have to look at the big picture of all the entities of the county,” Lindeen said.

Van Dorin said the position of community outreach coordinator is 'extremely important” to the wellness of the community.

Van Dorin praised Kelly Carr, HHCC director and applicant for the position of community outreach coordinator, for her grant-writing ability.

'She's essential with the grant-writing piece. She's very proficient with that. Those talents are hard to come by,” Van Dorin said.

Lori Bolin, Public Health nurse, agreed, saying when Carr comes across grants that might fit another area of the community, she passes those off to them.

'That's still money coming back into our community,” Bolin said.

Derek Wellington, IT director for the county, said it still comes to financial responsibility.

'Supervisors are responsible for taxpayer money,” Wellington said, adding that Henry County's Public Health department is overstaffed for a county of its size.

Buzz Bezoni, Board of Health chair, disagreed with Wellington, saying that Henry County's Public Health is staffed similarly to same-sized counties.

'The community is crying out for this,” Bezoni said about the position of community outreach coordinator.

Dave Helman said with rural hospitals 'on the rope financially” as the U.S. faces a health care crisis, the burden of health care will fall to Public Health.

'We just lost Hillcrest (Family Services),” Helman said, speaking about the impending closure of the mental health services facility. 'Every time we think we're making headway something new comes up. For two decades, we were making progress on teen smoking. Now we have e-cigarettes and vaping. We have to make sure people in our community have the resources to stay ahead of that curve.

'It takes a talented, compensated person to do that,” Helman continued. 'I urge you to support this position,” he said to supervisors.

Anita Hampton, HHCC board president, said the future of HHCC and Public Health's community outreach coordinator should be seen as preventive health care to improve the overall wellness of the community.

'It is cost-effective to go that preventive route,” Hampton said. 'We look at it as an investment in community wellness and cost-savings in the long run.”

Hampton said the HHCC board has separately discussed health care concerns such as juvenile mental health, hypertension, obesity and smoking and ways to educate residents about how to live healthier.

'We're putting dollars into prevention, and I think we're producing healthier children who are making healthier choices (and) saving the county money later,” Hampton said. 'It is an investment, and I think (the position of community outreach coordinator) would be money well spent.”