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Tri County Health reports roughly $5 million in revenue; highlights youth suicide, overdoses and prevention work
Summary
Kurt Bench of Tri County Health told the Daggett County Commission the department reported about $5 million in revenue last year (roughly 40% federal grants), emphasized youth suicide and overdoses as top concerns in some age groups, and highlighted Narcan distribution, suicide-prevention training and plans for a new clinic.
Kurt Bench of the Tri County Health Department presented the department’s annual report to the Daggett County Commission on March 10, saying, “Last year, we had about $5,000,000 in revenue.” Bench told commissioners the bulk of that funding — “about a little over 40%” — comes from federal grants drawn through the CDC and state dollars.
Bench said expenditures were slightly under $5,000,000 and that roughly three-quarters of spending goes to wages and benefits for the department’s professional staff. “Almost 0.75 of our expenditures is wages and benefits for our highly trained professional staff,” he said, explaining the department’s focus on maintaining expertise in public-health services.
Bench described the department’s data work and prevention priorities. He said staff review death certificates across three counties to look for trends; when the team examined two years of data for younger people, “the main 3 things that we saw primarily were suicide, overdose, and accident,” Bench said. He added that counts in some categories are small and that the department purposely did not publish raw counts in the overview to avoid identifying individuals.
Bench outlined prevention programs and local outreach: distribution of car seats, Narcan trainings (which he said have “saved lives”), suicide-prevention QPR training for local businesses and immunizations. He said the department served about 1,300 women as part of a vaccination/service effort (the record’s phrasing is unclear on the precise program label) and urged commissioners to contact the health department for training or support.
During questions, commissioners asked for metrics and counts. Bench said his epidemiologist had done a two-year review and that small counts made precise percentage breakdowns misleading; he noted that for privacy reasons some small counts were not published. Bench also reported, without specifying the illness in the record, that “as of yesterday, we had 5 confirmed” cases that staff were monitoring and investigating.
Bench said emergency preparedness and efforts to protect water, land and air from contamination remain ongoing priorities. He said he would share the full written report with the commission and invited follow-up questions from commissioners and staff. The commission recessed for a municipal building authority meeting at 9:35 a.m. following the presentation.
