RESOURCES:
Washtenaw County Health Department (WCHD)
TRANSCRIPTION:
Caroline MacGregor: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU. I'm Caroline McGregor. And today, we are talking about the Washtenaw County Health Department. They've just released their 2025 annual report, and with me today to talk about the findings in this report is Beth Ann Hamilton. She is the Communications Coordinator for the Health Department. Welcome, Beth!
Beth Ann Hamilton: Thank you for having me!
Caroline MacGregor: You know, there's quite a few points made in this health report, but touch upon some of the highlights, if you would, given that we are facing some federal funding cuts. And there are some challenges that we're seeing today.
Beth Ann Hamilton: Yes, definitely! Well, we really love putting this report together every year to kind of just summarize all of the amazing work that happens throughout the year: things that people know about, things that people don't know about that kind of happen behind the scenes. So, we take our responsibility to protect public health here in Washtenaw County very seriously. And we're proud to report out this work. So, some of the highlights include we, as the health department, lead our county's opioid settlement fund planning. And this year, it was a really busy year for that work. We awarded over $2.25 million in settlement funding to local organizations that are working to mitigate the harm shown the opioid epidemic. We released a ton of local data reports, including ones that show that deaths from gun violence, suicides, and opioid overdoses all decreased in Washtenaw County in 2024. We celebrated the 10th anniversary of our dental clinic. We launched a new kindergarten oral health assessment program to get little kids in with a screening before they start school so they can get connected to dental and oral healthcare if they need it. We also did a lot with our environmental health work, which, I think, we always are trying to spotlight that. I think a lot of people might be more unfamiliar with that, but just one of the programs that our environmental health division runs is a pollution prevention program that works with facilities to make sure that hazardous materials are stored, used, and disposed of properly, which helps us prevent things like environmental contaminations and larger emergency incidents. So, this is a long report. I think we've got 20, 23 pages, and it really is just kind of like scratching the surface of all of the different public health programs and services that we offer in Washtenaw County.
Caroline MacGregor: The opioid settlement funds are a big deal for the county as they are throughout the state and all over the U.S. actually. Tell me a little bit about how some of these funds are going to actually mitigate the harms from the epidemic.
Beth Ann Hamilton: Yeah. So, like I said, 2025 was busy. We really got organized with this work transition from kind of like planning and to actually getting those funds out there. So, those local funds that were awarded last year went to organizations that are doing harm reduction, recovery work, prevention, treatment, even things like the Shelter Association of Washtenaw county was awarded money to help with supporting housing access, and really just a ton of different programs and services that we don't provide at the health department, but we are recognizing that we have really great partners that are doing this work. And we're using those funds that we get as a county to really, really boost and amplify the impact that those programs have.
Caroline MacGregor: If you're just joining us, my guest today is Beth Ann Hamilton. She is the Communications Coordinator for the Washtenaw County Health Department. And we are talking about the release of their 2025 health report, which outlines numerous services and the general state of affairs at the Health Department and offers a forecast moving forward. Tell me about the Community Health Improvement Plan, known as CHIP, which turns data into action. Explain, if you would, for our listeners' sake, what's taking place here.
Beth Ann Hamilton: Yeah. So, our CHIP work is really kind of the backbone, kind of like planning work, that we do of like assessing what's going on in the county with regards to health, deciding what's important to our community members about what needs to be improved and then really putting plans into place to really like address those things that we've identified need to need some improvement. So, in Washtenaw County, our three priorities for our CHIP are mental health, healthcare access and navigation, and access to healthy food. So, we have three work groups, one for each of those priorities, that are convening partners and really digging into what needs to be done, how we can work together to make improvements. And so, that work is very broad and involves partners, but we also use our CHIP to improve things here at the Health Department, so to look at our own kind of strategic plans and our internal operations and make sure that our work is in alignment with what our community wants to see happen for public health.
Caroline MacGregor: And as far as environmental health, you've had some new employees join this department, at least last year. Tell me a little bit about how these staff have been incorporating technology into day-to-day operations to boost efficiency.
Beth Ann Hamilton: Yes. So, some of this kind of makes me laugh. It's very government to be excited about using iPads instead of paper forms. But that's where we're at, and we're really excited about it. So, our environmental health team has done a ton of work to look at our processes and make improvements, both for our staff, but also for our residents and business owners and property owners and people that benefit from our services. So now, when we're out there doing things like sampling public swimming pools to making sure that they're safe We'll have a nice iPad instead of a clipboard and paper. And that also looks like our restaurant inspection reports. They've always been available online for the last several years, but we have a new improved platform for those now.They're updated every other week, so folks can always go to our website, check out those restaurant inspection reports. We have over 1,200 licensed food service places in the county. So, it's easier for folks to go actually look and see what we're seeing at our restaurants.
Caroline MacGregor: My guest today is Beth Ann Hamilton. She is the Communications Coordinator for the Washtenaw County Health Department. And we are talking about the release of their 2025 health report. Beth, just to sum up, I know your Washtenaw County health officer, Jimena Loveluck, she stated in an overview that there are struggles and with declining investments that have been going on for decades. And the department's very careful with resources. But how do you foresee the coming years, given the impact of federal changes and other threats to public health funding?
Beth Ann Hamilton: Yeah. So, definitely, we kind of try to take it day by day. I think something that folks might not realize is that policy changes that are made now might take some time to actually result in impacts for us down the line. And that's kind of what we're expecting. We're expecting to see those kind of like impacts being delayed in terms of funding, and I think what we want to show with this report is that the funding that we get, the resources that we have as a health department, they go back out into our community. Like, we are here to do this work to help people be healthier, avoid illnesses, prevent outbreaks, all of that work that we do. And I think cuts to public health funding are really devastating because they can go right back and negatively impact our community members. It's really hard for us to say for sure what will happen, but we're kind of just bracing for potential impacts on our staff and services, trying to be savvy wherever we can, which is something that we're used to in public health. We're a very scrappy bunch, but, yeah, we kind of, as a local health department, declining investments are not nothing new for us. Like, we're kind of used to making the most out of resources that are maybe not sufficient. So, we will continue to do that and really to just go after our mission, which is ensuring that everybody has the best state of health and well-being possible.
Caroline MacGregor: Okay. Well, thank you for that summation. I've been talking with Beth Ann Hamilton. She's the Communications Coordinator for the Washtenaw County Health Department. And we've been taking about their 2025 annual report. For more information on this report, you can visit WEMU.org. Beth Ann, thank so much for joining me today!
Beth Ann Hamilton: Thank you!
Caroline MacGregor: This is 89.1 WEMU-FM Ypsilanti, your community NPR station.
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