The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

How are you supporting local health departments?

Prior to the public health infrastructure grant, the situation in the state of Kansas, specifically working with our sub-awardees, the local health departments (we have 94 of them in Kansas, and Kansas is about 85% rural and rural frontier) – we have folks who were newer to this work and really desired and requested additional assistance in managing their individual PHIG workforce grants at their departments. Before we stepped in, things were a little bit scattered and unclear.

Our team was able to step in and develop a centralized technical assistance hub, or technical assistance center, if you will, that provides all these different resources that our sub-awardees need in order to be successful. We’ve provided so much technical assistance to the local health departments through something as simple as creating a booking link and inserting that in our signature line. Through that booking link, we have been able to provide over 150 instances of technical assistance to local health departments within the last 12 months, which is pretty amazing.

How are local health departments using PHIG funding?

In Kansas, our 94 local health departments have been able to utilize their public health infrastructure grant funding through many different ways. The majority of that would be through hiring on additional staff at their health departments such as RNs, LPNs, and even Community Health Workers (CHWs), which is really exciting. They’re also able to support their staff’s benefits. We have some unique things happening, such as helping folks with their community health needs assessments and improvement plans, offering their staff tuition assistance, or even offering loan repayment assistance for staff as well.

How are communities benefiting from PHIG?

I am really thinking about the various local health departments across the state of Kansas and how PHIG is showing up in their communities. I think about one county that expressed their satisfaction with not only us on the PHIG support team, but with the PHIG Grant. For example, they were able to fill some vacant roles they had for nurses that they couldn’t fill for more than a year or so. But with PHIG funding, they were able to increase the base pay rate for those roles, and they were able to reach a wider candidate pool. Those roles are now filled!

I think of another county that is now able to serve patients after hours: meeting folks where they’re at, serving folks who work during the day and can’t make it to an appointment between 8:00am – 5:00pm. They’re able to keep their clinic doors open past 5:00 pm and serve folks and their families. I think about local health departments who are able to provide car seats and get car seat technician training for their staff. They are able to install those car seats for the folks they see at their clinic, those new families.

I also think about how local health department staff are able to utilize PHIG funds to attend trainings they could really never access before, things like learning how to best support new moms, new dads, and new families through things like perinatal mental health training. I also think about safe infant sleep training, making sure that all the folks in our communities have access to a safe sleep environment for their baby (which is alone on their back in their crib). Folks are also able to give away free pack-and-plays to their patients as a result of funds from the PHIG Grant.