GPDH wants county better informed of health services

GPDH wants county better WELLNESS informed of health services as area grows

By TOM SPIGOLON

tspigolon@covnews.com

The Georgia Department of Public Health plans to be more proactive about informing Newton Countians about its services as it works to serve a population expected to grow at all income levels.

However, a top official also said the department must solve current staffing issues to be able to provide those services at the level required.

Dr. Audrey Arona, director of Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale Health Departments, also known as GNR Health, said its services and staffing typically grow along with its service areas’ populations to meet the need for supplemental healthcare.

Arona said the health department “fills in the gaps where community resources are lacking for under-insured folks.”

“As the population grows, those gaps sometimes broaden,” she said. “Sometimes the gaps get smaller and sometimes ... entirely change.

“We’re constantly reevaluating our strategic plans and trying to meet community needs and manage community resources that we have,” Arona said.

The Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget predicts Newton County’s population will grow by 15% to 130,000 in eight years, and 41% to 191,000 by 2060.

However, reports of heavy physical and psychological demands COVID placed on health care workers nationwide were common during the pandemic. It led to some seeking less-stressful employment and resulting in acute shortages in many health care professions — especially in nursing.

“Coming off COVID, in healthcare in general, we all are regrouping staffing-wise primarily because of losses in nurses off of COVID,” Arona said. “Not only do we expect staffing to change with growing populations, but we find ourselves now at a place where we really have to adjust our staffing levels based on what we currently have.”

Arona said the department has no short-term plans to expand its clinic in Covington, which operates in a county-owned building on Hazelbrand Road near the Newton County Library.

But it does plan to make a new COVID testing option available in a kiosk near the clinic to allow residents to access rapid tests after hours, Arona said.

She said her department wants to more actively inform Newton Countians about the need to be vaccinated against COVID.

Despite the number of new infections dropping, the disease is still very present in the U.S. and some prominent people recently announced they had become infected.

More than 46% of Newton County residents had been fully vaccinated against the disease through April 11, which is lower than the statewide average of 56%, according to the state public health department.

”Throughout the pandemic response, it’s been very difficult to convince people in Newton County to get vaccinated,” Arona said.

“And now, as we kind of change our focus away from the pandemic, as we get toward more normal services that we provide, we really look forward to having to engage our Newton County residents in one-on-one conversations where we’ll be looking to assess individual risk differently and personally and hopefully convince them that the vaccine is right for them,” Arona said.

She said the department also is focusing on informing qualifying residents that they are eligible for programs like the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC.

The program provides federal grants to states for supplemental foods, health care referrals and nutrition education for low-income women who are pregnant or either breastfeeding or not, postpartum.

It also is available to infants and children up to age 5 who are found to be at nutritional risk, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Arona said the department is working to tell residents about the income requirements because many women’s economic situations worsened during the pandemic. They may not know about the program or that they qualify for it, she said. In Georgia, a single woman with one child and an annual income of $32,000 or less can qualify for WIC benefits, according to the state public health department.

Arona said partners play vital role in increasing access and public awareness of services.

“We can do so much more work when we combine with our partners,” she said.

The Newton County Health Department’s clinic operates in a county-owned building on Hazelbrand Road near the Newton County Library.

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