ORANGE CITY—Being wholesome means greater than caring for an damage or sickness.
Sioux County Group Well being Companions Director of Group Well being Companies Teri Bos mentioned public well being is about encouraging wholesome existence to stop illness within the first place.
The nonprofit will maintain a grand opening and open home on Tuesday, April 9, sharing its year-old constructing with the general public and educating residents about what its programming is like.
“Public well being is completely different than hospital and scientific well being care,” Bos mentioned. “One of many key variations and a method to have a look at it’s medical clinics and hospitals, which give direct affected person care providers. So, they supply vaccinations and wellness visits; In case you are sick, you go, if you’re injured, you go there and so they remedy you. And it has a really particular person strategy: it solves issues and retains you wholesome.
“Within the case of public well being, then again, our affected person, you may say, is a whole inhabitants of individuals.”
From offering instructional assets for household literacy and tobacco prevention to conducting dwelling lead inspections and consultations, CHP works to stop the explanations for a hospital go to earlier than it’s mandatory.
Nevertheless, when CHP can’t attain somebody earlier than hurt is completed, Bos mentioned public well being is the “connector” between clinics, hospitals, the state and the affected person.
“We’re not an island. Now we have 9 workers right here and we can’t present well being prevention training on the county degree on our personal; 9 individuals can’t do this in a whole county,” she mentioned. “One of many issues I like is attending to know the wonderful companions now we have right here in Sioux County. Now we have 4 hospitals and one group well being middle and we work intently with all of them. We are going to associate with them on completely different instructional courses and prevention courses.
“However we work with many others, comparable to church buildings, colleges, our county social service businesses and psychological well being suppliers. And I like partnering with different individuals and dealing with so many improbable individuals in Sioux County.”
The personal nonprofit group started in 1995 below the identify House Well being Sources as a house well being care service for hospitals in Sioux Heart and Orange Metropolis. In 1997, House Well being Sources assumed duty for offering public well being providers all through Sioux County, which it continues to do as Group Well being Companions.
For 28 years, the Sioux County group's workplace was on Central Avenue in Orange Metropolis, east of the county courthouse. However after some modifications in the neighborhood, the Sioux County Board of Supervisors moved the treasurer's workplace to the previous CHP location and situated the well being group at 705 Freeway 10.
“This was a used automotive dealership, therefore the actually huge car parking zone,” Bos mentioned. “The county board of supervisors purchased this constructing from us and transformed it for us.”
Arrange in its new house and simply in time for Nationwide Public Well being Week, which is at all times the primary full week of April, CHP will welcome residents for refreshments and excursions from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9. April. Trejo's Catering meals truck will even promote tacos and different objects within the car parking zone in the course of the occasion.
“Some persons are interested in how this constructing went from being a automotive dealership to a public well being company,” Bos mentioned. “So, letting individuals are available in and see the constructing, however we additionally see it as a very good alternative for individuals to return via the doorways and higher perceive who we’re, what we do and why we do it.”