Evidence shows that home visiting programs can improve birth outcomes and maternal health, improve parenting skills, reduce childhood maltreatment, and improve cognition and social skills in children. In 2023, Wood County Health Department (WCHD) successfully implemented an evidence-based home visiting program called Parents as Teachers (PAT). WCHD has limited grant funding, however, to sustain the […]
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Wood County Health Department has identified disparities in community health outcomes as a priority consideration for current and future programming. Wood County is home to almost 75,000 individuals, many of whom belong to marginalized groups. The Hmong community, Latinx/e community, Ho-Chunk Nation, and the Amish community are of particular concern to the Health Department in […]
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Statewide Resource Guide for Successful Reentry What is the purpose of this list? This list is meant to provide information about resources that support incarcerated individuals or previously incarcerated individuals. This booklet should be provided to individuals at the Wood County jail but may be useful to others as well. This list should be updated […]
As incarcerated individuals attempt to return to the outside world after being released, they may face several barriers including challenges with finding employment, rekindling familial connections, establishing housing, and having restricted access to governmental assistance — to name a few (Simmons University, 2023). In addition to these challenges, being incarcerated is associated with higher rates […]
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Wood County Health Department’s (WCHD) workforce development plan is central to the department’s ability to address the critical public health challenges facing Wood County. These challenges include an aging public health workforce, funding cuts, and maintaining accreditationby the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). It is essential to the work of WCHD to identify gaps in […]
Communicating the financial return on investment of public health interventions is essential for understanding the full context of a program on community health and reducing biases in program evaluation (Edwards & Lawrence, 2021). Our goal is to identify a method that Wood County Health Department (WCHD) can use to evaluate its Providers and Teens Communicating […]
In 2016 and 2020, residents of Wood County Wisconsin, and Wisconsin Rapids, a city situated in southeastern Wood County, identified housing affordability and housing quality as major health needs. In the 2016 Wisconsin Rapids Housing Study and Needs Assessment and 2020 Wood County Community Health Assessment (CHA), more than 50% of Wisconsin Rapids residents identified […]
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The goal of this group project was to improve health equity in Wood County. Health equity occurs when “[E]veryone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This requires removing obstacles to health such as poverty, discrimination, and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair […]
Wood County offers a variety of outdoor recreational trails and activities, however, according to the 2022 County Health Rankings for Wood County, 25% of the adult population reported that they did not participate in leisure time physical activity (“Wood, Wisconsin,” n.d.). We will develop evidence-based recommendations for an app that will encourage the utilization of […]
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The issue of insufficient numbers of child care providers in Wood County, WI can be attributed to low profit-margins of providers and unsustainable staff wages; it is estimated by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families that 36% of Wood County zip codes are in a child care desert. This has resulted in long waiting […]
Read More… from Increasing Child Care Access and Child Care Staff Retention in Wood County