Officials to Urge Funding OK on 2 Health Care Programs

Ventura County health care officials will ask the Board of Supervisors today to accept state and federal grants and use county dollars to help fund two programs for children and pregnant women.

The Women, Infants and Children program, which provides food and services to pregnant women and women with young children, is seeking county approval to add $50,000 in state funds to its $1.1-million budget.

WIC is also requesting that the county pick up $5,600 in administrative costs not accounted for in the state money.

The added revenue would allow the over-enrolled program to increase its monthly client count from 10,000 to 10,800 poor women and children.

Anticipating county approval, the agency has been operating at the increased level since February, WIC Director Edith Wald said.

“It’s really just a formality,” Wald said. “We’re enrolling as many women and children as we can.”

The county’s Maternal and Child Health program will seek approval for $150,000 in state grants and federal tobacco tax-health education funds.

About $43,000 would pay the salary of the program’s public health nursing director, a position now paid by the county.

The remainder of the funding would pay other salaries and cover the cost of a new program to help women stop smoking during pregnancy and keep them smoke-free after their children are born.

The agency is asking that the county absorb about $14,600 in costs not included in the funding.

“These are both valuable programs serving a population whose cost for care would otherwise fall on the county,” county Health Care Agency Director Phillipp Wessels said. “Even with the cost (to the county), the county comes out ahead.”

A third item proposed today would allow the county to apply for $450,000 in federal funds to follow up on a recent survey involving health needs of Latinos in Santa Paula.

The survey determined a need for preventive services to help lower the diabetes rate, promote exercise and improve the overall health of the Latino population.