Description
    The Department of Health, Housing & Welfare centralizes many services for the Danbury community. Multiple Divisions within the Department work on all aspects of public & environmental health. These are; the Office of Community Medicine which works to provide information and guidance for physicians and agencies on the prevention of communicable disease and direct patient care for Tuberculosis and Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD); the Environmental Health Division provide the improvement and enhancement of environmental resources in Danbury; the Housing & Food Inspection Division conducts inspection of property, food service establishments, rental housing, licensed hotels and rooming houses and enforces the State lead regulations. This year marked the 13th year of service of the Danbury-High School and the 6th successful year of operation of our Broadview Middle School’s School Based Health Centers (SBHC). The Welfare Division provides residents with municipal and community social services in an expeditious, cost effective and comprehensive manner as well as manages an Emergency Homeless Shelter. The Women, Infants & Children (WIC) program serves pregnant and post-partum women, infants, and children up to the age of 5 in the Greater Danbury Area.

Accomplishments
    This year the Office of Community Medicine collaborated with school nurses to prevent TB in children, as well as worked with the Visiting Nurse Association for influenza prevention and offering Flu vaccine clinics. They also helped provide Lyme disease education programs in collaboration with Danbury Hospital Physicians and Public Health Officials.
    The Environmental Division provided land use inspections and permitting of on-site septic systems, well water supplies, erosion controls, recreational and beach sampling & inspection, inspection of hazardous material storage in manufacturing facilities, improving public health response to all hazards and working on the Public Health Preparedness Grant, and provided staffing for the Environmental Impact Commission.
    The Housing & Food Service Inspection Division works with the UNIT Inspection Team and continues to improve Food Safety by providing inspections of Food Service facilities and assisting the Office of the Corporation Counsel in amending the Code of Ordinances. The Division also enabled the Danbury Housing Partnership to serve as the lead oversight agency for implementing the Ten-Year Plan to End Homeless.
    The SBHC helped approximately 845 students receive medical, mental health and preventive health care services and welcomed over 3,500 SBHC visitors. A second SBHC/Tribuna fundraising event was held this year and raised $9,000 in private funds to assist health center staff with services for children, assistance with prescription medications and select diagnostic testing procedures.
    The Welfare Division worked to streamline individual’s access to social services and housing opportunities. The Division is also involved in the operation of an emergency shelter for homeless adults. Welfare continues to help residents obtain and improve access to various local, federal and state assistance programs such as medical care coverage, rental & housing assistance as well as food assistance. The Division also worked to improve social conditions through collaboration, partnership development and advocacy with various public and private agencies. The Division helped the Housing Partnership implement the recommendations in the Mayor’s Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness, the HMIS Point of Entry program, the Continuum of Care initiative and multiple other community and State initiatives.
    The WIC Division provides comprehensive nutrition education and counseling that enables WIC to monitor infants and children growth and work to improve nutritional outcomes such as overweight, obesity and anemic children. Danbury’s WIC program continues to be a leader the State of Connecticut by having an 88% breastfeeding initiation rate. The program also continues to have a decrease in anemia rates from 9% for FY 2005-2006 to 7% for FY 2006-2007 and we continue to see a reduction in low birth weight (LBW) infants by having a decreased rate of 3.3% this year. The decreased rate of LBW infants is an excellent reflection of the prenatal counseling by our nutritionists and the supplemental foods provided by our WIC program. The Division’s future goals consist of attempting to increase the rate of enrollment of women in their first trimester and to aid in healthier birth outcomes.