Get Healthy, Carson City: The year in Health and Human Services

The end of the year is a common time for people to think about what has happened during the past 12 months and to set goals for the next year. The staff at Carson City Health and Human Services, your health department, has taken some time to think about our successes in 2019. Below are a few of these highlights.

Human Services

Once again Carson City Human Services Division partnered with Western Nevada College to co-host a Spring Job Fair. Sixty-one employers were there to conduct interviews and 107 jobseekers came ready to interview.

Carson City Human Services Division secured funding to implement Carson City Sober Housing Assistance Reinforces Everyone’s Safety, a transitional housing program for homeless participants of the Specialty Courts. Additionally, the Human Services Division has increased funding with two additional grants that will support the division’s case management efforts in providing secure safe housing and connecting individuals to resources during criminal justice reentry.

Our Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program saw an increase of 1 percent of moms breastfeeding for any length of time and a 2 percent increase of moms breastfeeding to the age of 24 months. WIC implemented an auto-reminder of appointments program and is experiencing a decrease in appointment no-show rates by 7 percent.

Our Human Services Division coordinated a public health information video loop for front lobby waiting area. When you visit us at 900 E. Long St., you will learn more about the services we provide and the way public health impacts your life every day.

We are excited to report that during this last year, 14 homeless individuals were successfully placed into permanent housing and 19 were placed in CCSHARES, a transitional housing program.

Clinic Services

In 2019, Clinical Services continued to provide immunizations, women’s annual health checkups, family planning/birth control services, tuberculosis screening and sexually transmitted disease screening. From Jan. 1, 2019, to Dec. 24, 2019, 4,968 individuals were served through 9,953 visits. The number of visits is sure to reach 10,000 by the year’s end! Clinical Services offers immunizations on a walk-in basis every Thursday. Same-day and next-day appointments are available for all other services mentioned on Mondays through Wednesdays and Fridays.

We would like to make Carson City area businesses aware that Carson City Health and Human Services has a program to help support employees and customers that are new parents, with a Breast Feeding Friendly Workplace program. This program can help employers follow Nevada Revised Statute 201.232. The program consists of resources to provide education, information and equipment for your business. A comfortable chair, privacy screen, table and small dorm size fridge can be provided to businesses wanting to set up a breastfeeding area. For more information about this program for your business, please call 775-283-7903.

Disease Control and Prevention

In Carson City and Douglas counties, the Disease Control and Prevention Division Environmental Health Program permits 1379 establishments. DCP staff conducted 1,672 routine, follow-up and complaint inspections. Only 3 percent of the routine inspections required follow-up inspections. The DCP Epidemiology Program reviewed more than 10,000 laboratory documents in the process of investigating more 1,000 reportable conditions.

Chronic Disease

Vaping is now an epidemic among our young people and is changing rapidly. In 2019, Toni Orr, Public Health Nurse and Tobacco Prevention coordinator, has conducted many presentations about the current problem and vaping devices currently being used. If anyone is interested in a presentation with the most current information, please contact us. In addition, the Nevada Quitline (1-800 QUITNOW) is available to anyone that wants to quit smoking.

The Adolescent Health Program is now offering sexual health classes at Carson High School. The program continues to surpass yearly goals. An art contest took place at Eagle Valley Middle School this month and the artwork of the three winners is now displayed in the clinic waiting room for the next year. Thank you for the collaboration. CCHHS is proud to display the work of local artists in our agency.

Public Health Preparedness

In 2019, Preparedness staff completed several significant community projects throughout the Quad-Counties region of Carson City, Douglas, Lyon and Storey counties. The first of these was the door-to-door community assessment of Douglas County residents in May and Storey County residents in September to determine the level of household preparedness for an emergency. We assessed whether residents would evacuate to shelters, if households kept a three-day supply of food and water, and if residents have prepared for their pets during an emergency. This same assessment will be completed in Lyon County in spring 2021 so as to not interfere with the 2020 Federal Census.

Preparedness staff also collaborated with the Carson City, Douglas County and Lyon County school districts to offer flu vaccinations at every school within the region. Additionally, in partnership with Clinical Services, several community flu vaccination clinics were offered. Almost 4,500 people within this three-county area were vaccinated against the flu including children, pregnant women and seniors.

Finally, your Preparedness staff brought several nationally-renowned trainings to the area to support our first responders including Burn Surge training and Mental Health First Aid training for public safety officers. Additionally, the Preparedness staff collaborated with fire, EMS, law enforcement, school districts and Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) across the Quad-Counties region to deliver bleed control training to the general public. In the last half of 2019, more than 40 trainings have been completed with more than 550 people trained. If you would like to sign up for bleed control training, please contact your local fire department and request a training.

Carson City Health and Human Services wishes everyone a happy new year!

For additional resources and information about Carson City Health and Human Services programs and services, check out our website at www.gethealthycarsoncity.org, “like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cchhs, follow us on Twitter at @CCHealthEd, call us at 775-887-2190 or visit us at 900 E. Long St. in Carson City.