Special to Iredell Free News

The Iredell County Health Department was recently presented the Dr. Sarah Taylor Morrow – Health Department of the Year Award.

The award, which was given during the North Carolina Public Health Association’s Fall Educational Conference on September 15 in Wilmington, is presented to a county with a population of greater than 59,999 for outstanding programs and effort in service to the community.

With 110 full-time staff members, the Iredell County Health Department works to meet the needs of a population greater than 180,000.

During the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Iredell County Health Department staff responded to almost 9,000 telephone calls and over 1,100 emails, to provide the community with reliable information about COVID-19 vaccines, testing, and how to protect themselves.

In July of 2021, staff provided training on the state’s school toolkit to the Mooresville Graded School District and trained six school nurses on the new NCDHHS COVID-19 StrongSchools Toolkit. This same training was also provided to Iredell-Statesville Schools’ 24 school nurses. Two additional training sessions were held with 11 participants from four charter schools, four private schools and Mitchell Community College.

In September of 2021, the health department partnered with the Iredell County Partnership for Children and Families to offer a virtual training on the NCDHHS COVID-19 Day-care Toolkit. There were 59 participants from 28 daycares. An update training was held in February 2022 with 28 participants.

This past year, the COVID-19 Community Outreach Worker Program provided 21 COVID-19 vaccine
educational sessions at local industries, community organizations and churches with over 2,500 participants.

The team also participated in 16 community events. Through their efforts, 718 additional individuals chose to get vaccinated after the information sessions.

Community Health Educators worked closely with local NAACP leaders on the development of a vaccine educational video widely shared throughout the county. Health Department staff coordinated community testing sites for StarMed to ensure that all geographic areas of the county had access to free COVID-19 testing.

With the assistance of the Health Department, StarMed provided over 31,000 free COVID-19 tests in Iredell County.

School exclusions from COVID-19 had a tremendous impact on the mental health of children and youth in Iredell County.

To help address concerns related to depression and suicide, the Health Department planned and hosted in-person training for schools and other youth serving organizations on May 5, 2022. Forty-six attendees from both school districts, charter and private schools, the Department of Social Services, Iredell Health System, the Health Department and Partners Behavioral Health attended the training on Mental Health 101 lead by Partners Behavioral Health.

The Iredell County Health Department knows that to truly impact the health of our residents, we must closely partner with other community organizations. Our COVID-19 testing, vaccination and prevention work was successful because of partnerships with Iredell County Emergency Management, Fire Marshal’s Office, Emergency Medical Services, Cooperative Extension and Parks & Recreation, Iredell County Partnership for Children and Families, Senior Centers, the Town of Mooresville, churches, businesses and other community organizations.