The Board of Health met 02/14/2024. One of the information items they received was the 2023 4th Quarter Health Department Report.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
The report was brief and fairly self-explanatory, but Health Officer Charles Sepers did highlight a few items.
He noted that STIs in people under 18 years of age had increased markedly year-over-year (14 in the 4th quarter of 2023 as compared to 0 in 2022). He said that followed a national trend of increased STIs in people under 18.
With the move of the Coordinated Entry Specialist from the Community and Economic Development Department to the Health Department, they had been able to grow and increase the capacity of that program. Additionally, they had started sketching out the new Community Resource Navigator role that would be going active in April.
The number of inspections increased in 2023 as compared to 2022. This was the result of new staff members being brought on. Although the weights and measures inspections were lower in the 4th quarter of 2023 as compared to 2022, Health Officer Sepers said that across the entire year, the numbers were very similar.
Board Chairperson Cathy Spears was concerned about the reduction in referrals to Public Health Nursing. Health Department Deputy Director Sonja Jensen said that they were going to do more outreach and, although it was not reflected in the quarterly report, they had seen an increase in referrals over the past few months, particularly for prenatal care coordination and maternal/child health. They were working with the Appleton Area School District, clinics like Mosaic and Vida, and the Building For Kids to get the word out about the services they offer.
Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2) asked what their strategy was to respond to the increase in STIs in people under 18. Health Officer Sepers said they were working with a vendor to provide STI testing and treatment, but it was unclear how that was working out. They were having issues in getting data from the vendor (which he did not name) and noted that that was a regional problem and Outagamie County was also experiencing the same problem with that vendor.
Deputy Director Sonja Jensen said that during the pandemic the Health Department was so focused on Covid that they did not do a lot of education or follow-up for STIs. They were trying to work again with their community partners to provide education to hopefully help people not get infected to begin with, which was more desirable that responding to an infection after the fact.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1161520&GUID=898DE6B2-8B60-44C5-A283-278B82FE0B49
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