Open house highlights Public Health Center

WASILLA — Although the local Public Health Center held its first outreach open house March 31, nurses at the clinic are accustomed to sharing information on current health topics with the public.

For example, when the ebola virus briefly seized headlines in Alaska and elsewhere in October and November 2014, nurses at the clinic experienced an increase in phone calls about the issue. They say they still struggle with parents of children reluctant to vaccinate their children for various reasons. Demand for their services is never really diminished or eliminated, but the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) could shift the burden of payment for some services to others, according to officials.

The new outreach effort was devised in part to accommodate a new influx of patients, said clinic manager Sandra Woods. While the public debate over Medicaid coverage could determine tax bills, it’s unlikely to affect the type of patients the clinic serves, Woods added.

“My estimate is we’re serving the same population that was ineligible before, it’s just a different funding source is going to pay for the cost, instead of it coming out of, say, our general fund, we’ll be able to draw on Medicaid,” she said.

While some issues have made progress — distributing information about ebola, for example — a public health clinic’s work is never done.

“Communities being communities, there’s always going to be something to do,” she said. “We can declare victory in one area, but we always have another area we’re going to turn around and focus on.”

Local public health nurse Michelle Rountree said that a big facet of public health, besides the widely familiar pairing of vaccinations and examinations, is providing information to those who need it.

Take immunization for example. When confronted with parents who are reluctant to have their children vaccinated, whether out of fears about a vaccine’s contents or for other reasons, public nurses will attempt to provide more information so people can make informed choices, Rountree said.

“We have a lot of parents who are very hesitant to vaccinate, some parents will have a lot of questions, and some will not have any questions,” she said. “At that point, what we try to do is provide them information so they have valid information that we can both share together. We share it with them and they can ask questions, and then they can make informed decisions after that.”

While that approach can be frustrating — one parent had an initial reaction based in part on information from author David Icke, who believes (among other things) that President George W. Bush was a disguised reptilian humanoid — the decision to vaccinate or not is ultimately a parental one, Rountree said.

However, multiple reasons can cause parents to be reluctant to vaccinate, Rountree added.

“Usually what we find when we get down to these things, it’s generational,” she said. “They don’t know where they’re getting their information. Their mother didn’t believe in it or their father didn’t like them. For some, it’s religious. The church believes that God will take care of all of us or they don’t believe in vaccines.”

The clinic also does STD screening, and provides information about family planning. One portion of a recent tour included a spinning wheel with a packaged condom taped to it, to illustrate potential negative outcomes of sexual activity. They provide “well child” and “well woman” examinations, designed to help determine whether a child is developing normally. They also track infection rates for epidemiological studies for the state.

They also have someone dedicated to solving a simultaneously fascinating and potentially revolting detective story.

Laurel Sullivan, a health program associate and the clinic’s sexually transmitted disease investigator, spends a lot of time telling people bad news.

“Never a boring day,” she said. “You get to talk about sex all day.”

Sullivan talks to people who test positive for various STDs, then helps notify people’s partners.

“I verify who they are, and I’m pretty personable, I think, so it’s not awkward for me anymore … it’s awkward for them,” she said.

She also makes the rounds at local high schools, prisons, and MY House, typically for birth control.

“They don’t invite me for STD classes, they invite me for birth control,” she said. “Then we slide that in there.”

In honor of National Infant Immunization week, the Mat-Su Public Health Center, 3223 E. Palmer-Wasilla Highway, No. 3 in Wasilla, will waive the administration fee for all vaccines from April 11 to May 1. For appointments, call 352-6600.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.