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The Wood County Health Department's mission is assuring health, protecting the environment and preventing disease. The mission of The Northwoods Consortium, and Wood County Health Department's emergency preparedness program is to develop core expertise, and prepare for and respond to bioterrorism, infectious disease outbreaks and other public health threats.

Description:
The Wood County Health Department consists of 30 employees; public health nurses, environmental health sanitarians, health educators, public health aides, office staff and WIC staff. The department offers many programs to the public, and also maintains other programs in-house, protecting the health and safety of the public. One such program is public health emergency preparedness. This program develops and constantly updates plans and protocols for dealing with health emergencies. **We are recruiting volunteers to help us with a mass clinic if a public health emergency would occur. Volunteers would be asked to assist with registering clients, helping direct clients, assisting with client comfort and assisting special needs clients with mobility. We are also looking for volunteers that might have knowledge, skills and experience to help counsel clients related to the emergency.**

History:
Public health emergency preparedness programs exist throughout Wisconsin and across the United States, funded through the Centers for Disease Control. The programs began in 2001 to develop and prepare for responding to public health emergencies. The programs began by Consortia, or governing boards, formed throughout the states. Wisconsin has 12 Consortia. Wood County belongs to the Northwoods Consortium. The Consortia provide leadership and direction to each local program, helping local programs collaborate on plans and protocols, as well as helping to devolop plans and protocols for the whole Consoria.

Contact people:

Heather Erickson, Health Educator; Public Health Preparedness Coordinator, (phone), (email) Susan Kunferman, Health Director/Officer, (phone), (email) Nancy Eggleston, Environmental Health And Chronic Disease Supervisor, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (715) 421-8962

Address:

184-2nd St. N. Wisconsin Rapids, WI 54494 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.co.wood.wi.us

Directions:

The site of the mass clinic will depend on where the emergency happens. At that time, volunteers could be directed to the site. The site will be one or more of several pre-selected sites within Wood County.