By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff writer
When Jan. 1 rolls around, most local communities will be served by a new public health provider.
Central Racine County Health Department will slide into the hole left by the closing of Western Racine County Health, which has been providing public health services in the area for many years.
In 2014, Western Racine County Health is serving the City and Town of Burlington, as well Raymond, Dover, Rochester, Village of Waterford, Norway and Yorkville. All are making the switch to Central Racine as of Jan. 1.
Two west-end communities – Town of Waterford and Village of Union Grove – left Western Racine County Health a few years back and are already contracting with Central Racine County Health.
City of Burlington Mayor Bob Miller said about the only visible difference will be the lack of a public health service office in Burlington.
Central Racine County Health’s office is located in Franksville at 10005 Northwestern Ave., in the U.S. Bank building.
Because of that, some services are switching sites.
The WIC program – which provides nutrition assistance for mothers and children who meet income and family size guidelines – will be held at Love Inc. in Burlington beginning Jan. 6, for the first three Tuesdays of every month.
Love Inc. Executive Director Bill Schoessling expects about 30-40 new visitors to be coming through the service agency every Tuesday.
“It’s the same space Women’s Resource Center uses,” Schoessling said. “(Now WRC) will be here on Fridays instead of Tuesday.”
In addition, the Health Care Network – a low-cost health care program provided for people with limited income and no insurance – a non-profit that was formerly housed in Burlington at Western Racine Health – will be housed at Aurora Health Center, 818 Forrest Lane, Waterford, beginning Jan. 1.
Participants should call Vickie at (262) 514-8154 to set up an appointment.
Margaret Gesner, the health officer for Central Racine Health, said a newsletter soon will go out to residents, outlining all the programming and resources.
“Most residents should not see much of a change, because most public health is population,” Gesner said. “We look at the population in the aggregate, vs. an individual. We look across all the communities together.”
Direct services will continue to be available, including home visitation programs for pregnant and parenting families, immunization appointments and adult services such as car-seat checks, rabies investigations, radon test kits, etc.
“There’s a myriad of programs and services that people will continue to have access to,” Gesner added.
The telephone number for Central Racine Health is (262) 898-4460; website: www.crchd.com.
-
-
-
-
-