 Welcome to Sheboygan County Government, working for you. My name's Adam Payne, I'm the Sheboygan County Administrative Coordinator, and I'm pleased today to introduce our guest, Ann Wundergem, who is Director of the Health and Human Services Department. And today is going to be talking about the largest department in Sheboygan County Government. As you know, if you've been following these programs, we have 23 departments in Sheboygan County. And the Health and Human Services Department has about a $35 million budget. A lot of programs, a number of very important services. And again, Ann's our guest today to talk a little bit about that. Ann, why don't you start by telling our viewers a little bit about yourself and your background? Okay, I prefer not to, but I will, Adam. I've been with the county in one capacity or another since 1978. Probably I'm the county employee with the most county titles. Started out working at the Comprehensive Healthcare Center as their volunteer coordinator and recreational therapist. Then was under contract with Sheboygan County Social Services Department doing program planning. Became a social work supervisor with the department in 1986. And then moved into division manager of social services in 1990. And most recently for the past year and a half have been serving in the capacity as director. Has it been a year and a half? Just about a year and a half. I'll be darned. I'll be darned. Well, it's been our, certainly our asset to have Ann working with us these years. Tell us a little bit about the mission of your department. Okay. Our mission is very short, so I'm going to expand on it a little bit. But we work to improve the quality and self-sufficiency for Sheboygan County residents. And what that really means to me is as we work through our programs and services that we provide to people, is we look at people's strengths, we look at family strengths, and we try to build on those strengths. If there's barriers in terms of what individuals or families are facing, we try to help the families identify natural supports to overcome those barriers. And if we can't find enough natural supports to work with the family to become self-sufficient or improve the quality of their life, then we actually step in and work with them as really a short-term basis as we can, so that they can work on their own, raise their children on their own, and basically live as independently in the community as possible. So, generally, you've just stated the mission or the primary role. Give our viewers a flavor for some of the divisions or areas of responsibility. As you said, Adam, we're the largest county department. We have five divisions, and I'll start with public health. Division of Public Health is responsible for communicable disease control. They also do school nursing. They have the Women Infant and Children program, which is called WIC, and that provides vouchers for certain food supplements for newborns and for pregnant women. We do all the immunizations that aren't done by private physicians, including chicken pox. And I think that's a key one, because many times people think chicken pox is wiped out. Well, it truly isn't. And chicken pox can be fatal, so we do that. Currently, we are doing flu shots for county employees, and we encourage everyone in the community to see their private physician or one of the community clinics for their flu shot. There's been two cases reported in Milwaukee, so we know it's out there. They also do lead screening and the Hotel Restaurant Inspection program in addition to numerous other duties and responsibilities. We have the Division of Social Services, and that is one of our largest divisions in terms of our staffing level. They have the responsibility for all child abuse neglect investigations, so any time anyone in the community reports child abuse neglect, we have a responsibility under state statute to take a look at investigating that and determining whether or not it's substantiated. In addition, we get referrals from law enforcement and from the schools in terms of juvenile justice. In that case, it may be a juvenile who was picked up for burglary. It could be something as simple as a truancy case, but under Chapter 938 of the state statutes, we have responsibility to take care of the juvenile justice cases, both the intake process and then ongoing services to that child and family when warranted. Economic Support W-2 is actually located out on Wilgus Avenue, which is in the job center, and they have responsibility for what used to be the aid for families with dependent children program, which is now W-2, more of an employment training program helping people get back into the workforce or starting out in the workforce. And they also determine eligibility for food stamps, which a lot of people are familiar with. People don't get the actual food stamps anymore. They get what's called a quest card. Looks like a debit card that they can run through when they're using their food stamps in terms of grocery shopping. Also determining eligibility for medical assistance and for child care funding. I understand that the job center, right now they're under some renovations. Absolutely. What's happening out there? The owner of the building is putting an addition on. Lakeshore Technical College needs some additional classroom space, so they're adding that on. And then there's going to be a new partner joining us, and we don't know the identity of that partner yet, so we're anxious to see who that will be. A partner from the state or private sector? It appears it's going to be the private sector, possibly one of the colleges. Might be locating some classroom space at the job center. Parking is at a premium, so anyone utilizing job center services needs to be aware that parking is a real challenge for everybody right now. It also means that our child care center, which is located in the job center, will be relocating to that new addition. So that'll be a real positive for the children that receive services there. Now you've mentioned three, I think we've got two to go. Three, we've got two to go, and I'll do it real quick for you. In the annex, which is the former Baxter building, we have located our division on aging, and Jim McCabe has been with that division probably for as long as I've been with the county also. Jim has responsibility for the congregate meal sites, and we have 10 of them located throughout Sheboygan County. They do some work with Meals on Wheels for home-delivered meals, and of course our contract with Handicare, our transportation service for the elderly and people with disabilities. They also have the National Caregiver Program, which is a new program. It works with people who may have sufficient income and are elderly, but are noticing that they need some type of maybe personal care, short services. We have a social worker that can work to assess what they need and then link them to the appropriate resources that they can actually pay for on their own. Definitely helps people stay in their home for a period of time. Also located in the annex is part of our division of community programs, and that's all our long-term support programs, and we've talked before, Adam, it's called our alphabet soup of cop, kip, and cop waiver and kip too. Those are all programs that the state funds and the county put some match dollars into to assist people who may have a mental health issue, have a developmental disability or a physical disability or elderly, that we can help them stay in their own home where they're financially eligible to have services funded by our department through those funding sources. Community programs also has some services located in our main building at 1011 North A Street. That is our outpatient clinic where we provide alcohol and other drug abuse and mental health assessment and counseling, both for individuals and families. And then we also run our programs for individuals who have what is called a severe and persistent mental illness where to keep them in the community we actually may work with them on socialization skills, how to shop, how to budget, monitoring their medication to really keep them as independently in the community as possible. Very good. I think that was five. Ann Kitted earlier that she didn't want to say along, she's been with the county, but as you can see, that experience is just tremendous for us because there are so many programs and so many services and such a breadth of services that you have a good handle on them and did an excellent job quickly summarizing them. How many employees do you have? 197, I checked with Amy this morning and we have a few vacancies that we're working on filling at this point in time. So if you followed just again the snapshot of programs that Ann just alluded to, how does someone actually access these services? How do you get help? Okay. It can vary, but we do have one main number and if you call that number, you could be directed based on the information that you provide and that number is 459-6400. If you know specifically that you're calling about abuse neglect, if you look in the phone book under health and human services, there are actually numbers identified for each of those major service areas that I did talk about. So you can just go to the white pages in that business section or even to the yellow pages and find that we are listed there if you're looking for help, if you're elderly, that type of thing. We also do walk-ins. So if someone, a good example is a family that's really struggling with someone that they believe has a mental illness, we have a centralized intake access person who happens to be retiring and we're replacing and she will meet with that family to talk about what are some of the alternatives. Do we need to look at filing a Chapter 51 petition in terms of getting that person some help? So we also do have walk-in services available at any three of the locations. What if, for example, someone's aware over the holiday is that there's an elderly person in their neighborhood that they wonder if someone's checked in with them recently or whether or not they're getting enough to eat or they're just concerned about their care? What would they do in that situation? Okay, you are talking, let's say, Christmas day or Christmas Eve, okay. We do have 24-hour a day, 7-day a week coverage. It's required under state statute, both for our mental health and our child abuse neglect and juvenile justice cases. What you would do then basically is contact law enforcement and law enforcement has the numbers that they can page the workers on call and we would have someone respond. What if it's not over the holiday? Say it's any other day of the year. Any other day of the year if you call 459-6400 because you don't want to look in the phone book to see exactly where to call, they would direct you to the right place. In the case scenario you just gave with an elderly person, what you would do is look under those elderly services and you would probably start with the division on aging and talk to someone there and they could make a decision if it needed to go to long-term support. The key is people have to take action. If they're worried about someone and want to reach out, they need to pick up the phone and contact you. Right. Very good. So you mentioned the different divisions, a snapshot of some of the programs, approximately. How many people does the department serve a year? This is always a good question. We do not have one information system. So I went through last year's annual report and based on what all the divisions reported, there would be 56,920. 56,920 people served. In one capacity or another. I'll be darned. Now, some of those could be duplicate people and I don't want to mislead you. Someone could be receiving services from the division on aging using their transportation service and also be reported to a meal site. So as I started to sort through it, I would say probably on an average annual basis, we're serving between 30 and 40,000 distinct individuals. I'll be darned. So it is a significant part of the Sheboygan County population. Would that include the, what is the annual picnic for seniors in Sheboygan Falls each year? I actually deleted that from my numbers because I didn't want to make them look larger than they were. And I did a little Excel spreadsheet because I knew I wouldn't remember. And just to give you an example, in aging when I looked at the congregate meals, the home delivered meals, telephone reassurance, taking out that summer picnic, it was 11,170. Now the highest number there was information and referral where we talked earlier, somebody picking up the phone and calling in was 7,520 calls that we took during that last time period. Now it could be Adam Payne calling up twice, once on behalf of maybe a grandparent and once on behalf of an aunt or uncle where you had concerns. So you could be two calls, one person. So that was a number of phone calls. When I look at public health, our average monthly WIC case load is 1,500. And a total there of 27,121. That included, of course, some of our educational programs that we do where we had over 3,000 people attend those educational programs. I know when I began here four years ago, I thought I had a pretty good handle on the breadth of programs and services provided by county government. But that's one of the values I think of this program, touching on each department every month. You just, until you're involved with getting some service or have family members or friends who are, it's just hard to even imagine just how many people are served and the opportunities that exist out there. While back, Vern Swaboda, when he was chair of the Health and Human Services Board and I rode the stagecoach one day just to get a flavor for it. And it was interesting to me because as the people started boarding as I was sitting on the bus, they didn't say anything to supervisor Swaboda, but they asked me what I was doing right on the bus because I wasn't old enough and I wasn't handicapped. And as we talked about it, it's not only that we were providing transportation from point A to B, it's the socialization and support that went on amongst people riding that particular day. So even just for myself, sometimes taking advantage and sitting down and talking to people that are actually benefiting from the service is very helpful. Now, speaking of a good service, last year your department initiated the Hotel and Restaurant Inspection Program. I think Dale Hippenstiel and his staff have led those efforts. And from all reports, it's been very successful. How's the program working? It is probably, I don't want to say one of our most successful, but it's one of our most visible programs, which is good. Bruce Kress, who is our lead for that program, really focuses on educating restaurant owners and people thinking about going into opening a new restaurant rather than sanctioning. They had over 600 contacts in the last time period because that program runs from July 1st through June 30th. Out of that, they identified 470 critical issues. Those are issues that have to be corrected probably within 24 to 48 hours in any given restaurant because it could have an impact on health or safety to the community. And then they identified about 1,500 non-critical issues which can be corrected over a course of time. They do temporary events. So when you have the Mung Festival, they're down there taking a look at that, broad days, those types of things. So Bruce and Dave are out doing that. Recently, we passed the, or the county board passed the body piercing tattooing ordinance. And Bruce and Dave are going to be starting that because the state did the license and we'll be looking at that starting in the new year in terms of really looking at controlling that business. Bruce has run a number of educational programs and in fact restaurants and temporary event people have asked for more of those. And we charge a nominal fee to cover our cost but doing the education up front with volunteers before they're doing a festival is very, very helpful. Bruce has also been helpful when we have had some foodborne outbreaks in terms of helping with that investigation and identifying the sources and that. I had the opportunity to get out with Bruce last year and I was so impressed with his people skills and also his presence. He was there to help respond to questions and there were instances where he had to be firm but it was really a good dialogue between him and the restaurant owners on what they can do to improve safety and food handling. Speaking of food handling in the holidays, do you have any suggestions for our viewers on some things they can do to make sure they're keeping things safe at the household? Absolutely. Because Adam, this week through the 14th is National Handwashing Week and I brought for you and I'm gonna leave a copy later that they can screen in. This is Henry Hand and Henry Hand has some tips for you on how you wash your hands. Wonderful. And I'm also gonna share this with you because I can't pronounce half the words on this page and I didn't have a public health nurse that could come with me but these are the types of germs that you can find on your hands and I'm just gonna hold that up and I don't know if you can focus in or not how clear it is but when I saw this it is just absolutely fascinating in terms of the types of germs that people carry on their hands and especially since we're in flu and cold season it's more important than ever that especially for children and adults that we wash our hands so you may also have that. My wife and I are constantly reminding our kids they need to wash their hands and as you said especially with children I think it's something that's good to remind them. So that's your first tip. Make sure you're out there washing your hands. And the other thing I have a question for you Adam. This is when I get nervous. When you're washing your hands the thing that you teach your children is how many versions of happy birthday do you sing to know that your hands are adequately clean? How many versions of happy birthday do you sing as you're washing your hands? How many times do you sing it? I can't say I've ever suggested they sing happy birthday while they're washing their hands but I would think if you did the happy birthday with the how old are you combined that might be sufficient. Twice. Twice. Twice will ensure for a child who knows happy birthday as they're washing their hands if they just sing they'll know that it's clean. Now they need soap and water to do that of course but yes. Now what about the teenagers out there? Can they sing something other than happy birthday? They probably can but I don't want to know what it is. But in terms of other food safety tips I was fortunate that Diane Marini one of our public health nurses who does communicable disease presented to the board and it's how you handle your food. In other words if you're preparing turkey and you're preparing shrimp you don't want to have those two foods mixed together when they're raw. So you have to really watch your surfaces that you're preparing food on not to mix the food. To keep your cold food cold and your hot food hot is really important. If you're entertaining a large group of people and you're going to prepare something ahead of time and a good example during the flood was people were making some people in Sheboygan College barbecue some call it sloppy joes. They call it a number of things hot tamales. When you're preparing that in a large quantity and you have a huge pot and you decide okay I'm going to serve it tomorrow so you stick that pot in your refrigerator. You're not going to cool it down fast enough at an equal temperature. So if you have a large amount of food divided into smaller containers so that when you're chilling it it chills appropriately and then you have to make sure when you're reheating it that it's heated all the way through at an equal temperature. So the keys are wash your hands don't mix your foods cold foods cold hot foods hot storage. And make sure the portions are small enough so they can cool down quickly. Absolutely. And the example I've from time to time you can see someone cutting up the turkey or the ham and then at the same time preparing the salad in a similar area that needs to be separate. All needs to be separate. Okay good tips. Well let's move on. Last year we discussed while you were here the anthrax scare that was out there and there were a lot of news reports about anthrax and recently in the news we've been hearing more about smallpox. In fact I heard a story on the radio this morning. What is the department doing to prepare for these types of threats? Well we're doing more than listening to the radio although sometimes I think that's where we get the most recent news. We have a health alert network which is called HON that we monitor daily in addition to the CDC out of Atlanta. So it's been very very helpful in trying to track the most recent proposals at the federal level and then also at the state level. A lot of bioterrorism dollars have come into the state of Wisconsin and as part of that effort counties had to form regional structures to begin looking at bioterrorism. We've joined with Fond du Lac County, Washington and Ozaki counties to form our region and Fond du Lac will be our fiscal agent for that region and they're currently in the process of now recruiting and hiring some staff to begin the bioterrorism planning. As I left the agency today we have been notified that they are at the federal level looking at voluntary vaccination for certain health care professionals. At the point in time the federal government would actually authorize that we will be prepared to identify those public health nurses who do not have At the county level? At the county level who would volunteer to be vaccinated with the smallpox vaccine and it is a live vaccine so there are some possible side effects to that. What that then allows should a case of smallpox occur those nurses who are vaccinated would then be able to vaccinate other people and that is the key. A question that often comes up is if I get my vaccine as I did growing up I won't need to be vaccinated and that is incorrect. Those vaccines will not protect you should there be an actual outbreak of smallpox. Good point, good point. I'm going to move through a couple of questions here because I think we have about five or seven minutes remaining and return back to the holidays and some of the functions and activities that are going to be going on. What are programs for example the divisions of aging and community programs what programs or services are they providing right now that are especially helpful or important over the holiday season? Right now aging along with the Sheboygan Press is running Share the Spirit and that is basically people who are elderly or have a disability who have some needs and don't really have family support and you'll see in the paper I'll use my name Anne Wundergem, 86 years old would like slippers and a gift certificate to a beauty shop and then people who are interested in the community can contact the division on aging and the phone number is listed right in there and either purchase those items and drop them off for that person or they can send money and we will purchase that on their behalf. We have been receiving generous donations within our department for all divisions and we have what's called a holiday room where our staff can go up there and whether it's an adult or a child we have gifts that our staff can then take on your behalf if you made a donation to families in need so that's been going on. So people of all ages there's an opportunity. Any other programs this time of year for example the cold seasons upon us heating bills and that can become an issue for people what do we do in that regard? We are running the energy assistance program we started taking applications back in October and we'll take those applications through May so anyone who is low income can contact the job center by phone and we'll actually mail them an application that they can then bring in so if they are eligible or feel they're low income and having problems with their heating bills they can feel free to contact us and we'll take a look at whether or not they're eligible for the energy assistance program. When you talk about some of the long term needs for the department because during the holiday people are more than generous and that's always nice because it is a good time of the year and it makes everybody feel good both the people that donate and the people that receive but we're always in need of foster parents so if anybody feels that they would be interested in that program opening their home up to a child and providing that care they can call that 459-6400 number. We also are in need of adult family home providers so we do have families that are willing to take in an adult who may have a developmental disability that adult with a developmental disability could be working at the rehabilitation center during the day but needs that structure of an adult family home so it's similar to a foster home. We also need volunteers to provide transportation to our children and families so they can call Pat Priggy also through that 459-6400 number and she can talk to them about what some of the volunteer activities are that they could partake in also. So whether it's making a donation for a child or volunteering time there are certainly a lot of opportunities where people can help not only this month but in the months ahead. In the future, right. Good. Well as we look to the future do you have any goals or objectives in mind some primary objectives that you'd like to see accomplished? Absolutely. Number one of course is the bioterrorism planning that we're involved in but as you know we have the Institute for Mental Disease Relocation Plan approved and we're hoping on February 1st or 2nd we'll be opening the drop-in center. It's been five years in the planning and we found a location and the funding has come through from the state. So our consumers are excited and of course we're also excited that that will be opening up in early February. Good. Well I want to thank Anne Wonder-Jim for being our guest today. She certainly provided a lot of very good information about the Health and Human Services Department and I hope that you'll take her up on her suggestion that if you want to help or you have you know people who need help that you'll contact that number. Next, at our next program Dan Lemon, you are County Board Chairman who is going to be resigning December 17th will be my guest. As you know we've been co-hosting this program for the last two-plus years and Chairman Lemon, you's going to be here to talk a little bit about some of his accomplishments some of his achievements and when I say his really the County Board and all of us as a team and also give us some thoughts about where he's headed for the future as a new state representative from this area. So thank you for joining us today and look forward to seeing you soon. And Adam from the Homespun Post for you and one for Dan even though he couldn't be here today and they're under the limit so you're okay. Very good, thank you. Thank you.