State could support local health departments with grant program

The Stearns County Public Health Division was contacted shortly after the stabbing and subsequent shooting at Crossroads Center in St. Cloud last year to begin putting services in place for people affected by the attack.

Director Renee Frauendienst and her staff arranged for mental health specialists to meet with mall employees the day after the attack and sent a staff member to the mall the day it re-opened, but that was all they could do with the resources available, she said.

Rep. Bob Loonan

“Our community is struggling with the ability to heal while partners are looking to public health as a neutral party to convene the community, (but) there is no one available in our offices to do the work,” she told the House Health and Human Services Finance Committee Wednesday.

Although local health departments are supposed to be “the backbone of prevention” and provide an early response to community issues, many struggle to meet their community’s needs and fulfill state mandates because of inadequate state funding, Frauendienst said.

HF614 calls for an ongoing appropriation of $37 million a year, beginning in Fiscal Year 2018, to fund flexible grants for local health departments to help them meet their communities’ needs. It is sponsored by Rep. Bob Loonan (R-Shakopee) and has no Senate companion.

The bill, as amended, was held over for possible inclusion in an omnibus bill.

State support has decreased as a percentage of local public health departments’ funding over time, straining local funding sources and leaving local tax levies to carry most of the burden, said Lorna Schmidt, director of the Local Public Health Association of Minnesota.