By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Wood County Health Department is putting more focus on behavioral health – including for its nursing staff whose lives were turned upside down by COVID.
At its monthly meeting on Thursday, the Board of Health voted to contract for a grief support program with Putnam County Health Department. While everyone was touched by COVID, public health nursing staffs were hit hard.
They went from working a typical five-day work week to seven days a week for two years, said Amy Jones, director of nursing at Wood County Health Department.
“There was a loss of normalcy of what you thought your job was,” Jones said.
The grief program is designed to help public health nurses recover from COVID and develop coping strategies.
“This is something they really would like,” Jones said of her staff. “This could help them moving forward.”
Also at Thursday’s meeting, the health board voted to create new positions within the department, including a full-time behavioral health manager and a full-time behavioral health specialist.
Last summer, board members agreed that the addition of rooms dedicated to mental health are particularly needed right now. Health Commissioner Ben Robison said mental health services have been identified as an urgent need in the county by HRSA.
“If a pediatric patient is identified for needing mental health support, it’s a six-week wait just to get the assessment in order to be identified for services,” Robison said last summer.
Diana Krill, CEO of the community health center, said the renovation will add two rooms dedicated to behavioral health. A third room, planned for optometry services, could also be used as another space for mental health services, she said.
Currently, mental health is “integrated” with other services at the health center, Krill said. The additional rooms will allow for individual counseling sessions.
Plans are to bring on more behavioral staff, Robison said.
“They will be used,” he said of the rooms dedicated to mental health needs.
Board of Health member Richard Strow said he had noticed that the number of substance abuse deaths in the county has dropped significantly, but the number of suicides had gone up in the past year.
Jones said the new behavioral health positions, plus the health department’s epidemiologists will work to track substance abuse and suicides.
In other business, the board of health:
- Authorized moving ahead with a water pollution control loan fund for replacement of failed home sewage septic systems. A portion of these funds can be used for linking homes with failed systems into available sanitary sewer lines. Robison credited Lana Glore and Kelly Bechstein, of the environmental division, for working hard to get the funds each year.
- Heard from Jones that the rate of influenza cases in this area has started to come down a bit.
- Inquired about the outbreak of measles in Ohio. Jones said the outbreak was only in the Columbus region. “We have been fortunate that we have not had any here in Wood County,” she said.
- Learned from Robison that a detailed budget will come before the board in March.
- After an executive session, approved 4% across the board pay increases for health department employees – mirroring the increases set by the Wood County Commissioners for 2023.
