Includes Grant County Community Health Council Emerging and Infectious Diseases Task Force report and Heigh Desert Humane Society report

[Editor's Note: As this was another lengthy meeting, the report on the Grant County Commission work session of Feb. 23, 21 will be broken into several parts. This is part 2.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

The Grant County Commission second work session of the month held Feb. 25, 2021, featured five presentations. The next one is the second and was given by Renée Déspres and Jeff Fell, the co-coordinators of the Grant County Community Health Council Emerging and Infectious Diseases Task Force.

Carey Lafferty, the GCCHC coordinator, announced "the exciting changes to the health council. Earlier this month, the steering committee extended invitations for affiliations to six networks working on individual, but not necessarily over-lapping focuses in Grant County. Under recently updated bylaws, the chairs of these newly affiliated networks will become members of the steering committee, which more than doubles the membership of the steering committee. They include the anti-poverty and economic development network led by Karen Whitlock; children, youth and services network led by Dr. Cindy Martinez; the emerging and infectious diseases network led by Dr. Renée Déspres; government, safety and policy network led by Jeff Fell; the outreach, prevention and public policy network will be led by Steve Chavira; and we also have a senior services network, but we have not formalized leadership of that, so I can't announce it at this time. I will turn the rest of the time over to Fell and Déspres. Having come on in January, I am overwhelmed with how impressed I am with their efforts. It's amazing what they have done."

Fell said the format has changed a bit this month. "Dr. Déspres will highlight the three top priorities of the taskforce, then I will give an update on the vaccines and we'll open it to questions."

[Editor's Note: As it was really difficult to understand Déspres through the technology of her speaking quickly on Zoom and this author on Facebook, she sent the priorities to this author . Here they are more or less as she presented them.]
"Among the many priorities of the Task Force, three have risen to the fore:
The need to move from yellow to green has highlighted the need to prioritize:
1. The need to quickly identify and isolate COVID-19 positive people, especially as schools reopen and other public health restrictions are loosened. We would like to find ways to use Rapid Antigen Tests to broadly test community members; these tests provide a more accurate snapshot of current COVID-19 status than the PCR test.
2. We are working to establish the 'Grant County CARES' program (Contact, Assessment, Referrals, Education, Solutions) to assure that community members have the wrap-around services they need as they cope with COVID. We are focused on two groups: vulnerable populations, especially isolated elders with chronic conditions, homeless, etc.; and people who are COVID-19 positive and must isolate (plus their families, which must quarantine). We recognize that there are huge costs associated with quarantine and isolation—these costs should not be borne by the most vulnerable in our community.
3. Mental health resources: The stresses of the pandemic are taking a toll on our community. According to Silver City Police Captain Melinda Hobbs, rates of overdose deaths have doubled since the start of the pandemic. Mental health services are available, both in-person and via telehealth; we are working to coordinate and create seamless referral systems, along with simple interventions like connecting youth with seniors for a phone call or even online Scrabble.
At the infrastructure level, we are working to develop appropriate methods to apply for and receive funding. Tens of thousands of volunteer hours have been donated to this effort. To make it sustainable, we need to find funding for it -- and the first step in doing so is to create the mechanism so that we can accept private dollars (foundations don't give to government entities, as a general rule)."

Fell said he has been trying to track vaccination numbers. "Two things have happened. For one thing, more providers have started to provide vaccinations, so it was hard to keep up. I've decided to use the New Mexico numbers on the Department of Health website. For Grant County, the state shows a population of 23,111, having removed the younger population under 16 years of age, which is not eligible for the vaccinations. So, in the county 19.4 percent or 4,472 have been partially vaccinated and 8.1 percent, 1,879 have been fully vaccinated with both shots. It doesn't matter if it's Pfizer or Moderna, both are two doses. We're looking forward to the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which will be a single dose. Local providers include the Department of Health, which during its weekly drive-through vaccination does about 500. Tomorrow, Wednesday, is their next scheduled vaccination. Also providing vaccines are Hidalgo Medical Services, Gila Regional Medical Center, Silver Health Care, Walmart and Walgreen's."

District 2 Javier "Harvey" Salas asked what he should do if he hasn't been notified.

Fell said he should log back into his profile on the state site and make sure all the questionnaires are completed. The state should have sent you a message. "We've asked them to do it a bit more frequently."

Edwards said: "I just want to say that this report is amazing. I appreciate all the work you've done."

The next presentation came from Heidi Ogas, the president of the High Desert Human Society. She relayed statistics for 2020, which can be seen in the following chart.

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She noted that the High Desert Humane Society, having given up animal control responsibilities, has had some challenges, but "we have cross-commissioned with the town Animal Control Officer Toney and have been working with the Sheriff's Department on animal control, so it's working better now. Year-to-year, we've seen in the comparison that for 2020 our numbers of dogs and cats coming into the shelter has decreased. Maybe people, because they're home more, are spending more time with their animals. Both we and the city saw decreases in intake numbers."

No questions were raised.

The next article will begin with a presentation on resources for veterans in Grant County.