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Hubbard County public health staff review 2024 services, disease trends and staffing
Summary
Public health staff reported increased home visiting caseloads, high WIC participation, local cases of pertussis and current respiratory activity, and discussed staffing and opioid funding plans for 2025.
Marley, speaking for the county public health team, gave the board a year-end account of 2024 activity and an outlook for 2025, touching on family home visiting, WIC participation, infectious disease trends and staffing.
Marley said public health staff include six public health nurses, one LPN, two health educators, two administrative staff and one home health aide who runs foot-care clinics. The department will advertise to replace an upcoming retirement and hopes to hire an RN to replace an LPN at a slightly lower full-time-equivalent level.
On family home visiting, Marley said the county exceeded its caseload goals, reporting an average of 25–26 families for the combined service across the North Country region and an average of about 13 families at a time in Hubbard County. For 2024 the department recorded 598 total family home visits and 18 universal new-mom home visits; staff also made 66 prenatal and postpartum contacts.
Marley described WIC participation as "extremely busy," reporting an average monthly participation in Hubbard County of 518 and 717 for the North Country service area in 2024, and a local total of 5,217 WIC visits in 2024. The county also recorded 2,328 case-management encounters and 297 foot-care clinic appointments across 28 clinics.
On infectious disease, Marley said influenza A and other respiratory illnesses have driven hospitalizations statewide and locally during the winter; the county recorded six cases of pertussis in 2024 amid a statewide rise (more than 1,000 cases statewide in 2024 versus 61 the year before). Marley said avian influenza has not been detected in Hubbard County and that existing cases elsewhere showed no sustained person-to-person transmission.
Marley also described work on a 2025 community health needs assessment with the local hospital and a community survey used to guide opioid funding. She said opioid funding planning will move to stakeholder discussions and likely an RFP process; county staff are taking a measured approach to the funds and plan to solicit proposals that match survey input across prevention, harm reduction and treatment.
Why it matters: The public-health report shows sustained demand for maternal-child services and WIC, indicates infectious disease pressures in the county's hospitals and frames staffing and spending choices for 2025.
Marley told commissioners the family home visiting program enrolls ideally prenatally and serves families until a child turns 3, delivering intensive visits and a prescribed curriculum. Commissioners asked about mental-health demand, and Marley said mental health continues to be the top need identified in the county's community health needs assessment.
