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Dr. Rajiv Gupta: Bastrop County public health team secures $2.7M in grants, expands services
Summary
Dr. Rajiv Gupta told the City Council the Bastrop County Public Health Department has grown from a small starter budget to a multi-million-dollar operation in its first year, reporting a 600-subscriber bilingual newsletter and a 24/7 mental-health platform with roughly 1,500 distinct users, and noting $2,700,000 in grant funding secured for housing and workforce initiatives.
Dr. Rajiv Gupta, the city’s representative on the Bastrop County Advisory Board of Health, presented a nine-month progress report to council, describing staff hires, outreach and grant successes since the advisory board formed. “We attained $2,700,000 in grant funds to support housing, health collaborative, and a health care workforce program,” Gupta said, emphasizing the rapid growth of county public-health capacity.
Gupta said the advisory board and newly hired public-health staff built a network of services that includes a bilingual monthly newsletter (600+ subscribers) and a 24/7, 365 mental-health platform (roughly 1,500 distinct users reported). He described quarterly notifiable-disease reports for county leadership, an infectious-disease communications strategy, and a transition plan to move clinical public-health services to Bastrop County. He noted the department’s first budget year began with $125,000 and ended with $3,200,000 in available funding from a mix of federal, state, local and philanthropic sources, as staff pursued sustainable programs.
Mayor Harris and council members thanked Gupta and the advisory board. Council asked how frequently the city representative would report back; Gupta offered to return as often as council requests. The presentation was accepted as informational; the city did not take additional action beyond receiving the report.
