Jefferson County health department reports school vaccine clinics, Narcan access, new behavioral-health navigator role

Jefferson County Health and Human Relations Commission members heard a briefing March 27 from Lindsay of the Jefferson County Health Department on this year’s program activity, including expanded school vaccine clinics, emergency medication stocks at schools, an upcoming behavioral-health services navigator position, and new contracts serving infants exposed to substance use.

The update matters because several items affect countywide public-health capacity and how residents will access vaccines, overdose reversal medication and maternal–child supports. Commission members pressed staff about how programs are funded and whether recent state Health First dollars are likely to continue.

Lindsay (Jefferson County Health Department staff) told the commission the department has expanded youth tobacco work tied to the county’s Tobacco Coalition and that it moved a part-time youth tobacco prevention coordinator to full time to match state funding and extend work into additional schools. The department runs two routine in-school vaccine clinics each year — a spring clinic for routine childhood vaccines and a fall clinic for influenza or COVID immunization depending on parental preference — and has begun attending school open houses to check students’ vaccination status and reduce administrative burden on school nurses.

The health department is providing “emergency stock medications” to…