Two town hall meetings have been planned to allow community members to provide feedback, ask questions and learn more about the Monongalia County Health Department.
The meetings will be held today (May 15) at the Morgantown High School Library and Thursday (May 16) in the Clay-Battelle High School Auditorium. Both meetings will are scheduled from 6-7 p.m.
In addition to the town hall meetings, a survey has also been distributed throughout the community that can also be found on the MCHD website, @wvmchd on Facebook and X, and #wvmchd on Instagram.
“What we want to accomplish with the survey and town halls is to identify the services we currently have and improve upon them and to add services that meet the needs of the community,” said Anthony DeFelice, MCHD executive director.
In addition to a variety of other services, the MCHS inspects local restaurants, trains food service workers and offers Smile Express, a mobile dentistry unit.
MCHD also provides the following services free of cost:
Breastfeeding classes,
STI testing and treatment,
Birth control,
Infant, childhood and adult vaccines, including those that would be needed for international travel,
And naloxone distributed as part of the Monongalia County Quick Response Team.
Established in 1929, the MCHD also operates the federal Women, Infant and Children program in six counties — Monongalia, Preston, Marion, Harrison, Doddridge and Taylor.
The town halls come at a time of great change for MCHD, including undergoing an accreditation process through the Washington-based Public Health Accreditation Board and the arrival of a new health officer, Dr. Brian H. Huggins, on July 1.
“As the new, incoming health officer, it’s really important to me that as we expand services, we do it in a way that is responsive to the community,” Dr. Huggins said. “In order to move forward in a meaningful way, we need feedback from all members of our community. We hope as many community members as possible will fill out a survey and even consider attending a town hall meeting.”