Health Department | Page 15

Healthy People. Healthy Choices. Healthy Lake County. Programmatic Highlights 2013 Collaborating With Local Partners Helping Thousands Receive Health Insurance Thousands of uninsured residents in Lake County received help with signing up for health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act as the result of several grants awarded to the Health Department. With more than $1 million in grant funding, the Department launched the Enroll Lake County! initiative that included The Alliance for Human Services and 27 local human services agencies. Certified navigators with these agencies provided outreach, education and enrollment assistance to residents throughout the county. The initiative will continue through 2014. Reaching High-Risk Clients Faster The Health Department’s Behavioral Health Services is partnering with Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science to improve services to individuals involved in the criminal justice system. Through the partnership, two Rosalind Franklin University psychiatric medical residents are providing psychiatric services to the Department’s traditional clinic population, as well as to individuals who are part of Lake County Probation and the Lake County Jail. This enables seriously mentally ill clients, who are being discharged from jail, to see a psychiatrist faster, with the goal to help stabilize mental health symptoms that often lead people to re-offend and return to jail. Preparing for Public Health Disasters This year, the Emergency Management program focused on developing public/private partnerships to expand the number of private sites that could be used for dispensing medications in the event of an emergency. Two local colleges and two large businesses agreed to participate. In its continuing efforts to plan and prepare for public health disasters, the program held exercises to test its mass vaccination plan, mass medical distribution plan, and demobilization plan. Additional exercises focused on building collaboration between the health department, regional hospitals and other partners. Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center 2013 Annual Report 15