The Union County Health Department will no longer manage certain grant funding for its Kenton Hardin counterpart, although the local agency will continue to offer support as needed.
Union County Health Commissioner Jason Orcena explained that the local health department has managed Kenton Hardin’s Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) grant since 2003.
However, Orcena said the recent hiring of a full-time health commissioner at the neighboring department makes them eligible to apply on their own behalf.
“That will ease some of the burden on our staff,” he said during the most recent Board of Health meeting.
PHEP funding is provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help health departments prepare to respond to a variety of public health threats, ranging from infectious diseases to natural disasters to biological, chemical, nuclear and radiological events.
Funding is not solely for responding to these events, but also helping health departments to prevent, mitigate and recover from them, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
ODH information notes that the PHEP cooperative agreement is a “critical source of funding” that helps public health systems improve in six different areas.
They include: community resilience, incident management, information management, countermeasures and mitigation, surge management and biosurveillance.
In a May 2 letter from Kenton Hardin Health Commissioner Kirby Rawlins, he noted that, along with his hiring, the department also employs a director of nursing and director of environmental health.
Since that makes the department eligible to manage its own PHEP grant funding, Rawlins said it “would like to take over the management of the grant directly at the first available opportunity.”
Orcena said that is good news for both of the departments.
He noted that he has met with Rawlins to discuss the PHEP funding and they are currently in the process of “disentangling” UCHD from its management.
Orcena added that Rawlins is a Marysville resident with ties to the Kenton area and he is looking forward to his leadership of the neighboring health department.
While UCHD will not actually administer grants for Kenton Hardin any longer, Orcena said Union County will be happy to provide support and guidance through the transition.
In other business:
– Director of Nursing Krista Finch noted that the health department is now offering preventative treatment to stop the spread of HIV.
UCHD will offer prescriptions for PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis), which Finch said reduces the risk of getting HIV through intercourse by about 99% and from injection drug use by about 74%.
She said the health department will be able to prescribe the oral medication but is working toward having a small supply in-house as well. There is also an option for the medication to be injected, which would be done by a medical professional.
– Orcena said UCHD is in the process of applying for grant funding that would allow for minor remodeling of the nursing division to improve infection control.