Public ideas sought on using influx of state money to county health department

The St. Joseph County Health Department will hold three meetings to gather public input as it shapes how it would use a major boost in state funding from Health First Indiana.

“We are trying to be transparent about how we are using the money,” Dr. Diana Purushotham, the department’s new health officer, said at her first local health board meeting on Aug. 15.

Health First Indiana could bring up to $4.2 million more in the first year and up to $8 million more in the second year. Health leaders see it as a chance to make gains in an array of public health matters that have lagged. Passed by the state legislature this year as Senate Enrolled Act 4, it came out of a governor’s commission to pull Indiana out of 45th place in public health spending.    

July 5, 2023: County commissioners opt in to boosted health funding from Indiana, reappoint health board

Purushotham said that the health department currently offers about 90% of the core services that the state’s Health First Indiana program requires. The rest would come from community partners, and she told the health board, “We don’t want to add redundant services.”

Purushotham will speak to start off each of the meetings. Then, in a sort of open house, participants will break up and speak informally, one-on-one with health department staff. And there will be anonymous postcards where suggestions can be written.

The hour-long meetings will be:

∎ 6:30 p.m. Aug. 31 at La Casa de Amistad, 3423 S. Michigan St., South Bend.

∎ 6 p.m. Sept. 14 at the New Carlisle Library, 408 S. Bray St., New Carlisle.

∎ 10 a.m. Sept. 23 at the Holiday Inn, 1208 E. Douglas Road, Mishawaka.

The health department is also seeking input through an online survey with 10 to 12 questions, estimated to take about two minutes. You can link to it here in the text of this story online.

Purushotham said the purpose of the meetings is to understand what the health department can do better, to find good programs that align well with the department and to educate the public about what the funding program is and how the health department can play more of a role in the community.

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The state had given a Sept. 1 deadline for counties to file their applications for the Health First Indiana money. The prior health officer, Dr. Joseph Cerbin, who served for just four months until Purushotham took over on July 24, said he and his staff had prepared the groundwork for the application.

But the health department’s attorney, Marcel Lebbin, said at the Aug. 15 meeting that the state has adjusted it so that counties won’t need to file fully worked-out plans by Sept. 1. Rather, he said, they just need to fill in general “budget buckets.”

South Bend Tribune reporter Joseph Dits can be reached at 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: St. Joseph County Health Department seeks input Health First Indiana