NEWS RELEASE
May 10, 1999

Haveman Presents "Director's Award" to Van Buren/Cass County District Health Department

Michigan Department of Community of Health Director, James K. Haveman, Jr., today presented the 1999 Director’s Award to the Van Buren/Cass County District Health Department. He presented the award to Jeff Elliott, Health Officer of the Van Buren/Cass County District Health Department, at the Local Public Health Leadership Meeting in East Lansing. The Director’s Award is an award given each year to a local public health department for an innovative project or program in the previous year. The award amount is $5,000.

"I am proud to recognize the Van Buren/Cass County District Health Department for their innovation in working with their communities to address critical public health issues," said Haveman. "Whether they are focusing on the needs of senior citizens, working with the community on the important issue of teen pregnancy prevention, providing dental health services, or identifying at-risk families to develop parenting skills, they have done an outstanding job to improve the quality of life in their community."

The Van Buren/Cass County Health Department formed community collaborative relationships in an effort to provide case management and "wrap around" services to special needs populations. These collaborative linkages include:

• Geriatric Assessment Plus. Collaborating with local hospitals, Area Agency on Aging, Visiting Nurses, Hospice Services, Western Michigan University and other agencies, the Health Department provides a full range of assessments, referrals and education for seniors. Geriatric Assessment Plus identifies the physical, social and behavioral needs of seniors.
  
• Medical Examiner’s Office. Collaborating with the Van Buren County Commission and a private physician, the health department established a public health based medical examiner’s office.
  
• Child Death Review Team. Collaborating with local hospitals, mental health agencies, the Family Independence Agency, public safety officers, the Medical Examiner’s Office and others, the health department reviews the deaths of all children between 0-18 years of age. The goal is to learn more about the conditions that lead to such deaths and how to prevent future deaths from occurring.
  
• Jail Health Program. The health department and the Van Buren County Jail have collaborated to provide all jail health services for the high-risk jail population as well as general medical services for the jail population.
  
• Early On. The health department has collaborative linages with the local interagency Early On programs enabling them to expand services available to the community. This effort has been very effective in supporting families of children with special needs.
  
• Opening Doors in Michigan Native American Communities Project. The health department is one of three health departments statewide selected to work collaboratively with local tribal communities that had no established tribal health services.
  
• Southwest Michigan Health Professions Education Initiative. This is a partnership with local hospitals, Western Michigan University, Ferris State University, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, health plans and Southwest Michigan Public Health Leadership Group and is a multi-disciplinary approach to delivering primary care in a managed care setting.
  
• Oral Health. The health department provides dental health services to county residents because dental health plays a major role in individual and community health needs. The services include dental exams, cleansing, preventive services, extractions, restoration and denture services.
  
• Parents as Partners/Healthy Families. This unique program is a partnership with the Kalamazoo, Cass and Van Buren Multi-Purpose Collaborative Bodies utilizing home visitation to target new parents who have been voluntarily screened for risk factors and stressors that may indicate a risk of child abuse and neglect.
  
• Strong Families Safe Children Collaboration has resulted in expanded immunization efforts to improve the number of children protected from deadly disease.
  

Van Buren County Health Forward: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Forum. More than 100 community leaders came together to address teen pregnacy from medical, social and educational consequences.