BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — During a luncheon Thursday at Shufflin Café, the Kiwanis Club welcomed Eric Mills, director of the Martin County Health Department, as their guest speaker. Mills announced plans for an emergency shelter and offered a look at the health department’s role in community welfare.
“The health department’s role, as the National Health Department Association would call it, is to promote, protect and preserve public health,” Mills said. “That didn’t mean as much to us until the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Mills outlined the health department’s position within the state’s emergency management framework.
“The health department and the Kentucky Department for Public Health represent the medical response to any disaster,” noted Mills. “So if there is a tornado or a mine building collapse, the Department for Public Health will facilitate all of the medical involvement in the response to that disaster.”
According to Mills, less than 10% of the health department’s funding is derived from local taxes, with the remainder sourced from state and federal governments. He noted that Martin County Health Department boasts one of the lowest tax rates in the state and the lowest in the region. The average rate is 6% across Pike, Johnson, Lawrence and Floyd counties and 10% in Magoffin County.
Mills called the health department a “safety net” that goes beyond vaccinations and WIC programs.
HANDS program
“We offer a tremendous HANDS wraparound service for families,” he said.
A comprehensive family support initiative, HANDS has served 804 families over 22 years. The program offers home visits, child safety and development monitoring for up to two years. It provides essential resources like car seats, playpens and diapers, fostering close ties through events like baby showers and Christmas parties.
Mills clarified that HANDS is not a needs-based program.
“It’s for everybody who needs a little help making sure their child is growing and developing the right way,” he said.
Families must enroll in the HANDS program before their babies reach 3 months old.
Mills introduced the new HANDS director, Jennifer Jude, a family worker and registered nurse of 12 years. Jude will take over for Liz Jewell, who is retiring at the end of the month.
“The state recognizes the Martin County HANDS program as one of the best,” remarked Mills. “A recent audit revealed the fewest deficiencies of any HANDS program the technical adviser had ever seen.”
Health and immunization
In addition to HANDS, the health department provides a wide array of services, including tuberculosis treatment, WIC program support, vaccinations, and STD treatments.
“You can walk right in,” said Mills. “If you don’t want to go and wait in the doctor’s office for 45 minutes, come down to the health department, and you can just come right on back.”
The health department currently offers services to residents who do not have insurance or access to insurance.
“You have access to those services for free at the health department,” said Mills, adding that the health department plans to broaden its reach.
Mills expressed particular concern about the prevalence of STDs like syphilis and hepatitis C in the community.
“I would never have imagined that syphilis is something that a lot of folks have, but it’s an issue. There is more of it than you would think. … And a lot of Hepatitis C,” said Mills. “These things can now be healed but require aggressive treatment.”
The director pointed to the need for the department to take a proactive stance on sexual health education and family planning.
“Kids are getting nothing from anybody,” he said. “They have no idea. We’ve got to get more into our schools and help them become aware in a way that respects morals and beliefs but otherwise recognizes the realities of our broken world and teaches folks how to maneuver more safely through it.”
Mills announced that the health department would expand its services to include family planning, maternity programs, and women’s health services in the coming months. He lamented the community’s lack of women’s health resources and the challenges women face when seeking services in nearby areas.
Welcoming Dorothy Johnson as the new program development and outreach manager, Mills shared his department’s enthusiasm for the energy and fresh perspectives she brings.
The health department was able to hire Johnson after receiving a $100,000 National Association of Health Departments grant for community outreach and education on vaccines. Only three health departments in the country received the grant: Dallas, Kansas City and Inez.
“It’s unfortunate that vaccines have become a political issue and that we have people who are afraid,” commented Mills. “As adults we know better, but it’s rubbing off on our kids.”
Johnson will lead community health needs surveys over the next six months, helping to prioritize resources and program expansion based on community input.
Emergency shelter
The conversation turned to the department’s future endeavors, including aesthetic improvements and plans to repurpose the old firehouse into an emergency shelter and water distribution center. The shelter, located on the second floor, will serve as a warming station and emergency shelter during disasters. It will be equipped with showers, cots and other emergency amenities. The ground floor will function as a water distribution center during outages.
“We’ve been fortunate to receive grant funding for those projects and will aggressively pursue that at every opportunity,” said Mills. “We will continue renovating with some specialized one-time funding we received.”
Environmental
Mills touched on the health department’s commitment to environmental health and safety, including septic system inspections and food safety inspections. He stated that septic system inspections, a prerequisite for establishing electricity in residential and commercial buildings, “would potentially include a sign-on to any kind of municipal sewer.”
The director assured that every restaurant and food truck in the county has had a rigorous inspection.
He praised Patrick Boyd, a health environmentalist from the Magoffin County Health Department, for his role in conducting the inspections in Martin County.