The public health departments of Natrona and Teton Counties each had two grants terminated by the Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) in late March.
WDH confirmed it expects to lose about $40 million in federal grant funding – more than $39 million for their Public Health Division and less than $1 million for the Behavioral Health Division. This comes after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it was cancelling over $12 billion in public health grants to states.
The first grant supported COVID-19 vaccination efforts. In Natrona County, the money went toward band-aids, gauze and syringes, and paid for staff time to administer vaccines during clinics. The grant was supposed to run from 2022 through June of this year, but was terminated on March 26.
Hailey Bloom is the Public Information Officer for the Casper-Natrona County Health Department. She said while they knew the vaccination grant was due to expire, the department had planned to use the money this spring to prepare for fall vaccinations.
“That will be really when we feel that impact,” said Bloom. “And we really have to scale back either how many clinics we can offer, [or] what kind of hours. People may have to just wait longer.”
Rachael Wheeler is the Community Health Manager and Interim Director of Health for the Teton County Health Department, which also received money through the COVID-19 vaccination grant. She said they anticipated losing the vaccine dollars in June.
“Since we only had a couple months left, we knew it was coming. We knew the end was in sight,” said Wheeler.
However, Wheeler shared that losing the funds so quickly was challenging. Two employees in the Teton County Health Department under the vaccine grant were terminated. They had expected to be there until June.
In an emailed statement, Kim Deti with WDH echoed a similar sentiment while acknowledging the difficulty of the situation.
“It was always known these grants were temporary and we have been planning where possible for funding transitions to ensure many key activities could continue. This week’s notices mean those transition plans will begin a little sooner than expected,” Deti wrote.
The second grant used COVID-19 dollars to fund community health programs and community health workers looking to fill gaps in healthcare after the pandemic. Specific programming was flexible depending on community needs.
Natrona County signed the grant contract in early March, and it was terminated by the end of the month. The grant would have supported two community health workers through May 2026, and job offers had already been extended to two people. Bloom said their community health workers were going to help people with chronic health conditions or mental health needs figure out where in the healthcare system they should go for help.
“They may be utilizing things like urgent care for things that are way more advanced than an urgent care can really offer,” said Bloom. “Or the opposite, where they're going to the ER for something that really could be taken care of in a different setting.”
And while Bloom acknowledges that the pandemic is over, she said that the gaps in healthcare it created still exist and need to be addressed.
“There's a big misconception that all of this money that's getting canceled was associated with the pandemic, and people are saying, you know, ‘The pandemic is over, that's why they're canceling the money,’” said Bloom. “We acknowledge, though, that there's still lasting impacts from the pandemic.”
Bloom also shared that the department has other streams of funding. From a strictly financial perspective, the grant cuts aren’t tremendous. But that says nothing of the impact on Natrona County.
“In terms of community impact, I would say it's significant because we know that this [gap in healthcare navigation assistance] is a significant need,” said Bloom. “We haven't been able to really address it, and it's unfortunate that now we really won't be able to help.”
In Teton County, these dollars went towards funding three community health workers and multiple initiatives, like translating mental health materials into Spanish, advertising, and the Connect with a Community Health Worker Outreach (CHOW) Program. Connect with CHOW provides open office hours at the library for community members to get questions about medical applications, health insurance or resources answered by a health worker. The three community health workers have had their positions terminated and the department is currently evaluating which community health programs will continue, but Wheeler said it is unlikely that Connect with CHOW will be one of them. Wheeler shared that the contraction of community health worker programs is especially difficult because of how these employees help uninsured and underinsured individuals find resources, and the trust they’ve built in Teton County’s non-English speaking communities.
The money also helped support the Latina Empowerment Circle (LEC), hosted in partnership with the Community Safety Network. LEC is an annual 9-week program for Latina women in Teton County. The goal is to reduce stigmas around topics like domestic violence. Due to the cuts, Wheeler said the department will no longer be able to assist with LEC.
“This grant had some flexibilities and allowed us to do programming and pay for services that other, restrictive funds didn’t allow,” said Wheeler. “It allowed us to expand our programs [and] support our community in a way that we will not be able to going forward.”
Wheeler said the department had $431,000 left in the grant for the next fiscal year. They were expecting $285,000 to cover salaries and benefits, which leaves a remaining $174,000 in anticipated expenses that they no longer have.
“ Honestly, I did not expect the health worker grant to be taken away so suddenly,” said Wheeler. “That one is really shocking.”
Bloom echoed her sentiment.
“It's very atypical for us to receive, like, mid-grant cycle, changes like that. I've worked in public health for 10 years, and I honestly can't remember this ever happening before,” said Bloom.
Both Bloom and Wheeler said their departments are exploring alternate sources of funding, but emphasized that counties across the state are currently facing fiscal challenges. Wheeler also stressed the human impact of these cuts, especially when public health and prevention are already chronically underfunded.
“It just sounds like dollars that the federal government are recuperating, but they're attached to people and people's livelihoods and programs and services that I know a lot of local and state health departments across the state were using,” said Wheeler.
