It’s been more than a year since the demolition of the old Peoria City/County Health Department building scattered its services. The Health Department, though, has taken root at various locations as it awaits the construction of a new Health and Human Services building.

Most of the child-based services, such as dental care, immunization and blood testing and the WIC program, as well for those with certain disabilities, are now available at medical offices at 3521 N. California Ave., just off War Memorial Drive. Adult-oriented clinical care like STI/HIV and TB testing and addiction treatment in addition to general practice are currently offered at the Human Service Center (228 NE Jefferson).

“Overall, it’s going really well,” said Public Health Administrator Monica Hendrickson. “The funniest part is people were showing up to the old site even though it was under construction.

“I wish it could be done right now, but …”

Completion of the massive construction project to replace the building more than a half century old is slated for December of this year or in early 2025. The new Health and Human Services building will include the full-service Health Department, the Peoria County Coroner’s office and morgue, the Regional Office of Education, and Sustainability and Recycling Services Department, all at the old location in the heart of the city at 2116 N. Sheridan Road.

“The Health Department anchors that neighborhood,” Hendrickson said from her current administrative office at the Peoria County Courthouse. “The fact that the County Board realized that was very key.”

Another smart move by the County Board was to include the Coroner’s Office in the project. Hendrickson noted the current building that houses the morgue down California Ave. at 506. E. Seneca is older than the Health Department building was.

“That building wasn’t really made to be a coroner’s office,” said Peoria County Board member Rob Reneau, who chairs the County Health Committee. “It’s in fairly bad shape.”

A couple of other things helped the transition to the various sites throughout the community.

A partnership in 2019 with Heartland Heath Services to break down barriers to comprehensive health has paid off nicely with public access to the old Human Services Center and prenatal, women’s health and pediatric care at HHS Carver. Access to all these services helps people coordinate their care.

And promote good health.

“Heartland helps give comprehensive care,” Hendrickson said. “We are excited to be working with Heartland.”

Ironically, the pandemic may also have helped the transition.

“One-sixth of County employees were disbursed,” Hendrickson noted. “COVID gave us some good tools with tele-health and video conferencing.

“We have new hires that you may not have contact with because they are at another site.”

Talk about working remote.

No doubt all the mailers and public service messages helped the coordination. Traffic at the dental clinic on California is “comparable, if not better than last year,” Hendrickson reports. “In-person treatments and case loads have increased.”

Reneau credits Hendrickson and her staff for getting the word out about where the services have been temporarily relocated.

“Haven’t heard of any failures of service,” he said. “And that’s a credit to the whole staff.

“Usually if something goes wrong, the County gets pulled in,” Reneau continued. “I haven’t heard anything. Nothing negative.”

The Health Department is branching out even more, too. Hendrickson said the new facility will include a Teaching Kitchen, which will counsel on healthy food options and food safety for aspiring restaurateurs once the Food Safety team moves back home from out by the jail.

The Regional Office of Education has maintained offices throughout the community even before the relocation started. ROE will welcome being under one roof, too.

The new Health and Human Services building will have one point of entry — as opposed to the four at the old building’s patchwork of corridors — with access to all the services Peoria County provides. Recent weather has been a challenge, of course. Construction workers were pouring floors at press time.

“The less roofs we have to maintain is cheaper for us,” Reneau said. “The new building will be a lot more efficient. It’s going to be a super-nice facility.”

— Brian Ludwig is Managing Editor of The Community Word