Last summer, I was looking for something in the Public Health department’s storage area when I came across a couple of boxes of photos from scrapbooks with old photos, newspaper clippings, meeting minutes, and much more. As I started to look through these documents, I began to learn more about the department and thought it could be fun to share our department’s history with the community. These stories come from Health Committee Meeting Minutes, Annual Reports, and newspaper story clippings.
The first Green County Health Committee meeting was held on December 3, 1935, in the Library of the Courthouse. At this meeting, the first County Nurse was appointed, and she began working on December 15, 1935. During this time, tuberculosis (TB) was a major health concern for the nation and Green County, the County Nurse worked on testing children across the county for tuberculosis and providing education on TB testing and vaccination. The County Nurse also coordinated vaccination clinics to vaccinate children against communicable diseases, such as smallpox and diphtheria. Home visiting was one of the other largest responsibilities of the County Health Nurse; she visited pregnant women, families with new babies, sick community members, and others. She also worked closest with schools to do health screenings for children. At that time, the department was called the Green County Nursing Service.
In the 1950s, the Nursing Service began educating the community about cancer by providing informational materials to country schools to give to parents in rural areas, going to schools and talking directly with students, and broadcasting information on local radio. Around this time, the United States was facing a polio epidemic, and the County Nurse investigated cases of polio and followed up with education, and provided support to the families of children who had polio.
Into the 1960s, the Green County Nurses’ continued to serve the community through home visits, hearing and vision screenings, education, work with schools, vaccinations, and communicable disease investigation. Over the years, additional staff had been hired to the department, including a support staff member and another nurse. The department also added three part-time Nurses to provide Home Care for Green County residents.
In 1973, the department was part of a group that began the Monroe Meals on Wheels program due to the need for meals for older adults who lived at home and could not prepare their own meals. During this time, Public Health Nurses also provided emergency nursing services to most schools in Green County. This included training school staff in first aid and responding to students’ urgent health issues. The 1970s also saw the beginning of the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program in Green County. This is a supplemental nutrition program that provides nutrition and health education along with food benefits to eligible families.
During the 1980s, the department had many similar responsibilities as the past decades; but also began to focus more on preventing chronic diseases. The department had begun offering blood pressure screenings, and cholesterol screenings, they provided general education through events and in newspapers, and in 1985 they offered a Diabetes Support Group in partnership with St. Clare Hospital.
During the 1990s, public health increased efforts to keep community members safe and prevent injuries - for example, the department hosted a bike rodeo for kids to discuss helmet-wearing and pedestrian safety. In 1992, the Home Care program was discontinued due to decreased client numbers and efforts to decrease the burden on taxpayers. Efforts to prevent chronic diseases continued through programs like “Buy Right, Eat Right” a supermarket shopping education program, and promotion of the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations Food Pyramid. Around this time, public health also worked to reduce and prevent smoking as a part of chronic disease prevention efforts. The county’s Tobacco-Free Green County Coalition educated community members about the health risks of tobacco use and highlighted businesses that went “smoke-free”.
In the 2000s there was a focus on emergency preparedness following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Public health worked with other organizations to implement policies and procedures and get staff trained to prepare for emergencies. In 2009, the health department faced the H1N1, or Swine Flu, epidemic. Once a vaccine was available to prevent this particular virus, the Green County Public Health Department offered community vaccination clinics and worked with schools to vaccinate kids in the community.
Green County Public Health has a long history of serving the Green County community, and this summary only highlights only a small portion of the work we’ve done in the past 87 years. Our department continues to be a resource for community members, and we invite people to visit our website, Facebook page, Instagram page or call us at (608) 328-9390 to learn more about what we are up to these days.
— Bridget Zimmerman is the Public Health Educator for the Green County Public Health Department and can be reached at bzimmerman@greengountywi.org or 608-328-9509.
