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The Board agreed to move this item up on the priority list. <br />3. Health Department Programs <br />Health Director Rosemary Summers said these three programs are currently in <br />existence and have need for supplemental County funding. This information is on page H-9 <br />through H-11 in the budget document. <br />• Public Health Reserve Corps Program <br />This was athree-year grant project that was received in 2003. The grant ended <br />September 30, 2006, and there has been same unexpended grant funds that enabled the grant <br />to be carried for a partial year. Last year the department collaborated with Emergency Services <br />to take an the development of the CERT program. Sa bath public health preparedness <br />volunteer programs have been combined to have one person coordinating and managing them <br />both. There are no more grant funds available. Emergency Services has agreed to allocate <br />$10,000 from its Emergency Management Performance Grant from the State. <br />There are 199 volunteers in the Medical Reserve Corps, and 123 of them are nurses. <br />The CERT program has three active community groups. The most active community is <br />Cornwallis Hills. The teams would be used to do rapid assessments in the case of an <br />emergency. <br />The Health Department needs additional general fund support this coming fiscal year in <br />the amount of $17,075 to support this one position. In the following year, the $10,000 grant will <br />not be available, so this would be an additional amount in 2008-09. <br />• Families In Focus Program <br />Rosemary Summers said that this program was started in 1998 and it is a child abuse <br />prevention program. In 2003, the State reduced the grant funding for this project. The original <br />project had 3.5 positions, and one position was taken out. There is now one full-time nurse, <br />one full-time social worker, and ahalf-time office assistant. This has been a very successful <br />project and it has a nationally recognized model with Healthy Families USA. <br />Over time, the allowable Medicaid billable units of service have been reduced. In this <br />program, the services offered to families exceed the billable units, so the Health Department <br />cannot recover all of the costs of the services provided. In the past, there has been a shift from <br />the County general fund to cover the amount of funds that have not been earned in this <br />program. This year, the Manager wanted these programs that had a general shift in County <br />funding to have a decision one way or another from County Commissioners before committing <br />to the general fund shift. This program would require another $26,653 in County funding to <br />maintain the entire program. <br />• Primary Care Program <br />Rosemary Summers said that the Primary Care Program was started in Hillsborough in <br />January 2005. This was done with County support from the general fund as well as from a <br />State grant that is renewable for three years, and then after that on a competitive basis. This <br />program in Hillsborough has been very successful. The strategic plan also has expansion to the <br />Southern Human Services Site slated for last year. Primary care was started at Southern <br />Human Services Center in January 2007. This was offered through an increase in staff filling <br />temporary positions. It is very hard to keep health care staff in temporary positions. The grant <br />was for the first six months, and she applied far another grant, and just last week she received <br />notice that the County will be awarded both grants for next year -bath for Southern and <br />Whiffed. <br />