Loup Basin Public Health outlines WIC takeover, staffing increases and new mental-health outreach

Amanda Jeffres, identified at the meeting as Executive Director of Loup Basin Public Health, and Stephanie Gideon, the department’s human-resources manager, provided an annual update to the Greeley County Board on June 23.

Jeffres said Loup Basin will take over Women, Infants and Children (WIC) services beginning July 1, adding clinics in several towns including Burwell and increasing staff capacity to support the program. The department described new federal rural-health funding that will enable hiring of community health workers to provide services such as CPR training, blood-pressure monitoring and school cardiac-preparedness work under Project ADAM.

Officials outlined public-health initiatives including hypertension education, expanded oral-health services targeted to underserved Medicaid adults, and expansion of home-visiting programs such as Healthy Families. The department said it plans to hire bilingual staff to better serve non-English-speaking residents. Jeffres and Gideon also reported that the department will explore transitioning pool inspections with cities to third-party inspectors to ensure continued inspections while reallocating staff resources.

Jeffres described the launch of “Credible Mind,” a free platform offering mental-health resources, assessments and crisis-support links with an emphasis on youth outreach through schools. No county action or formal vote was taken on the public-health presentation; the Board received the update during the public-comment/presentation portion of the agenda.