March and April are recognized nationally as Social Work Month (March) and Public Health Week (April 1- April 7). Cook County Public Health and Human Services (PHHS) employs 34 staff who provide direct service, health promotion, administrative and accounting functions in service of our mission: supporting the health, safety, and well-being of Cook County. In the PHHS department, we also rely on a network of public health and social service professionals working in other government, service, or non-profit organizations throughout the county and arrowhead region. In recognition of Social Work Month and Public Health Week, nationally, please join me in thanking these staff for their commitment and care for individuals, families, and communities throughout Cook County.

National Social Work Month

The National Association of Social Work’s 2024 theme is “Empowering Social Workers: inspiring action, leading change.” Social workers and other human services professionals enter the field because they truly want to help others. They go through years of education, training, and supervision so they can do the delicate, but important work of meeting people where they are and helping them achieve their goals. Social workers are trained to work in holistic ways, assisting not just individuals but their entire families, communities, and even society at large—especially if laws and regulations must be changed to benefit people. You will find social workers everywhere – in hospitals, schools, local, state, and federal government, social service agencies, corporations, and veterans centers.

National Public Health Week

The American Public Health Association recognizes the week of April 1 as National Public Health Week. The theme this year is “Protecting, Connecting and Thriving: We Are All Public Health.” The focus of the American Public Association is not just the ways public health serves our communities — protecting our access to clean water and air, to nutritious and safe foods, to the right and ability to access essential health services — but the ways our communities flourish when they have their needs met. As individuals and communities continue to respond and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, a robust public health infrastructure and workforce is more important than ever.

Projected Employment Growth

Public Health and Human Services careers are among some of the most in-demand positions nationally. As the US population ages and more people seek mental health care and substance use treatment services, the need for professionals working across these industries is expected to continue to grow. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, this occupational group is expected to see fast employment growth of 7.8 percent over the next 10 years. This projected employment growth for the community and social service occupational group is nearly three times faster than the all-occupation average (2.8 percent) and ranks fourth out of all 22 occupational groups[1].

Public Health and Human Services in Cook County

At Cook County Public Health and Human Services, staff across the department work together to meet complex needs of individuals, families, and communities throughout Cook County.

Examples of how our staff work across the department and with other service agencies include:

• Adult Services staff work closely with individuals and their health care teams, as well as with the economic assistance team at PHHS, to assess eligibility for state-funded waivers and plan for and implement community-based services that help support older adults to remain in their homes.
• Children and Family Services social work staff work with Tribal Human Services staff to determine a safe temporary home for a child while their parent receives medical services out of the county. In another area of the PHHS Department, Financial Eligibility and Fiscal staff work to issue payments to foster care providers to ensure the child’s basic needs are met while their parent focuses on their recovery and return home (often with support from the Substance Use/Co-occurring Disorders case manager).
• Public Health Educators listen deeply to the experiences of community members and use local and state-wide data to inform health improvement planning and interventions in partnership with non-profit and other community service providers in the County.

Every month, staff from the PHHS department present information on programs, services and initiatives at the Public Health and Human Services Board meeting. You can learn more about the work of our department each month by joining or livestreaming a PHHS Board meeting, or by viewing a recording of past meetings on the Cook County meetings website: https://cocookmn.civicweb.net/Portal/. Interested community members are also invited to join one of our advisory councils or community coalitions. You can reach out to me directly at 218-387-3623 or [email protected] to learn more about how to get involved.

Learn more about the PHHS department at the March 19 PHHS Board Meeting at 8:30 a.m. in the Cook County Commissioners Room. The meeting is available to livestream on the Cook County website at www.co.cook.mn.us. You can also visit our website at www.cookcountyphhs.org, contact us via email at [email protected] or find us on Facebook @CookCountyPHHS or Instagram @cook_county_phhs to learn more about our work in supporting the health, safety and wellbeing of Cook County.