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Teton County health department trims staff after grant losses; prevention award funds new campaign
Summary
The health department told commissioners it lost grant funding earlier in 2025, resulting in layoffs of five staff. The department also secured a $30,000 prevention grant to focus outreach to construction and energy workers and reported a $200,000 reduction in communicable disease funding that the state is working to mitigate.
Rachel Wheeler of the Teton County Health Department told commissioners on July 7 that the department has had to reduce staff after grant funding changes earlier this year and that other grants and partnerships are being used to sustain key services.
Wheeler said, "at the end of last week I think it was last week. At the June, we officially said goodbye to our 5 staff related to the community health worker grama and also, the COVID vaccine grant, due to losing those funds in March." She said the department is working with community partners to absorb some of the work those staff performed and that health staff have prepared packets and guidance for partners.
Wheeler reported a new $30,000 award from the Wyoming Department of Health Prevention unit to blend a state Let's Talk Wyoming campaign with a local overconsumption and 988 suicide-crisis-line awareness effort. She said the campaign will target heavy-industry employers (construction and energy) to raise awareness of suicide and substance-use risks and to help employers start conversations with employees.
On communicable disease funding, Wheeler said the county lost about $200,000 tied to a health-disparities grant. She said the state worked with the county and that the department "was able to keep all of our current staff for that program and maybe even hire a part time staff through the end of the contract period." The department reported quarterly free STI testing drew 24 individuals in June, its largest turnout for such an event, and a free oral swab HIV test day served 16 people.
Wheeler also reported environmental health inspection volumes are up year-over-year and that laboratory drinking-water tests exceeded 1,100. She said state and local partners are working on measles preparedness following a reported case in Natrona County earlier in July and that the department's public-health response coordinator was accepted to a national communications work group.
