Community & Family
Health Promotion
The Community Health Promotion Division is responsible for promoting the various programs and services that benefit the residents of Lewis and Clark County. The division concerns itself with the following:
BREAST & CERVICAL HEALTH PROGRAM
The Lewis & Clark Breast and Cervical Health Program makes breast and cervical cancer screening and education available to low-income, rural, and Native American women. The program coordinator enrolls medical providers to deliver screening services to uninsured women aged 50 to 64, with incomes under 200% of the federal poverty level. The Lewis and Clark County site serves Jefferson, Broadwater, Meagher and Powell counties.
FETAL, INFANT, CHILD MORTALITY REVIEW (FICMR)
According to state law, the FICMR team is responsible for reviewing the deaths of all children younger than 18 years old to find out whether those deaths were preventable. If a death is deemed preventable, it is the team’s responsibility to provide education regarding how to prevent such deaths in the future. The FICMR team consists of one of the health department’s WIC nurses, along with the coroner, deputy county attorney, law enforcement, Child Protective Services, and doctors and nurses.
GRANT WRITING & PUBLIC INFORMATION
Staff members write grant applications for the CHC and the health department, applying for funds from federal, state, and private sources. The public information activities include writing and distributing news releases, writing newspaper columns and editorials, writing monthly health department newsletter, working with the media, and writing brochures and all other promotional materials for the health department.
Other services these staff members provide include collecting and analyzing health data, facilitating strategic planning sessions for the health department’s boards, and working with community groups to promote public health efforts. Examples include bicycle/pedestrian issues and suicide prevention.
HOME AND COMMUNITY BASED SERVICES
The Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) case management program is a component of the state’s Home and Community Based Services Medicaid Waiver Program. The case managers coordinate and monitor home care for elderly and disabled people in order to prevent, to the extent possible, more serious illness or deterioration that requires hospitalization or a nursing facility. Clients must be eligible for Medicaid. In addition, the case managers provide case management services to people with HIV/AIDS, through a contract with the Partnership Health Center in Missoula.
PUBLIC HEALTH HOME VISITING
Social workers and nurses (called “home visitors”) provide many services to low-income families that are at risk of abuse and neglect, right in their own homes. Home visitors help their clients find food, housing, employment, baby care items; teach them about bonding and attachment and conduct year-round parenting classes; provide them with emotional support and counseling; and refer them to community services. Home visiting is available to low-income pregnant women, their infants and children, and families.
TOBACCO USE PREVENTION
The Tobacco Use Prevention Program’s goal is to raise community awareness about the harmful health effects of tobacco. Staff members are involved with reducing tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke among youth and adults in Lewis and Clark County, creating tobacco-free environments, decreasing the promotion of tobacco products, and linking people who want to quit using tobacco to cessation services.
WIC
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) currently serves about 1,025 low-income women and children per month. WIC is a nutrition education program that also offers supplemental foods for women, infants and children. WIC serves pregnant and breastfeeding women who have recently had babies, as well as infants and children up to age five. Benefits of WIC include nutrition counseling, breastfeeding promotion, nutritious foods such as milk and eggs, and help with obtaining private and public health services.