Dr. Carla Fry, administrator and health officer for the Florida Department of Health in Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about some new initiatives in the department.
There is a new team with new health officers.
Dr. Fry said, “We have been building the team, and we are just about fully staffed. We’ve got one more higher to go, and then we won’t have any openings, which is really cool. It’s taken a concerted effort, and our team is fabulous, so I’m really proud of them. We have a continuity of operations plan, and that continuity of operations plan really is necessitated by statute. In other words, core public health services have to continue pretty much regardless of what happens. So we exercise that we practice on a regular basis. So when the Gato Building closure was announced, I think it was Friday the 8th, we pivoted. We took one day to kind of regroup, and we were open the following day. Again, I’m proud of the staff for that and we’re operating fully. We’re at several different locations.”
The Healthy Start services have been moved to the Tuga clinic.
Dr. Fry said, “That is the new clinic. The Tuga Clinic named after the mascot for CFK, which is just a fabulous new addition to our portfolio. It is a partnership with us, with the college and with rural health networks. So that’s fully operational and will remain so. It has nothing to do with the Gato closure. It was something that we did in response to the Stock Island Community Health Survey. So that’s ongoing. But it just so happened, the timing was really good. We were able to use that area to go ahead and do our continuity of operations, to start our clinic up right away. But WIC and Healthy Start won’t fit, and so we’re going to put WIC and Healthy Start at Bernstein Park. That will be effective Tuesday. So Tuesday, December the 3rd. Right now they’re operating remotely, but that’s not something that’s sustainable. So on the 3rd, Bernstein Park, and that’s at 6751 5th Street over in Stock Island. Vitals is at Lester and then WIC and Healthy Start is at Bernstein, and then the rest of our services are over at the college. It’s confusing even for me at this point. I tell everybody, if they don’t know where to go, the best thing to do is call our main number, and that is 305-293-7500, that way we can direct people. They don’t have to waste any time or gas money.”
Credible Mind has also launched recently.
Dr. Fry explained, “We’re really pleased to bring this to Monroe County. It’s something that originated out in California and Berkeley, and it’s a platform that’s designed to empower people to improve their own mental health or their emotional well being. The thing about it that’s really cool, it’s totally free. We purchased it for the county and for residents, visitors and whoever happens to be here. So we purchased it, it won’t cost a thing, and it can be totally anonymous. So if you’re having that sort of existential crisis in the middle of the night and you just want to go on the website, you can even use your phone. It’s totally enabled for smartphones, you can do that. And so it doesn’t require an appointment or anything like that. The thing I think that’s important to note, is it is not meant to be a replacement for an appointment with a mental health professional. It is something that is more of an early intervention type of tool. The website is monroe.crediblemind.com. You can go to it early, often, whenever you have even just a question. I went on there just to kind of check and see what kinds of resources there were. I found things on workplace burnout. I found things on bullying, on managing stress during the holidays. It’s just an amazing amount of videos, articles, podcasts, and courses, and it covers about 200 topics. So, it’s a really broad range. It’s not just depression and anxiety, but there is a heavy focus and emphasis on that, as well as substance abuse. It’s really incredible. And the thing that’s cool too, is it really just caters to every different learning style. So if you’d rather read or if you’d rather watch a podcast, it really just depends, and my attention span is short these days, so a quick little podcast is sometimes the way to cover it. Any of those types of options are available, and again, totally free, totally anonymous. You can create a profile if you decide to do that and if you want to do it, it’s totally fine. But if you don’t want to create a profile, you’re on there as a guest, nothing is tracked. Your name isn’t there. So that, I think, is really sometimes attractive to people who, maybe feel like there’s still a stigma. There shouldn’t be a stigma with looking for help when you’re feeling depressed or anxious, but I think it’s still there. So this gives people the opportunity to do something on their own and really empower them.”
Dr. Mark Whiteside will be retiring at the end of January.
Dr. Fry said, “He’s absolutely been amazing. He’s a fixture in the community, and we’re going to miss him so much. He’s not moving away. So, he tells us he’s still going to be around, and we’ll still be able to talk to him, just like we can with Bob Eadie, who retired from my position. It’s a blessing for the community that he’s staying, but he is going to retire. He’s going to take some well deserved time to pursue some hobbies. He’s an avid birder, and he does a lot of research on his own, so he’ll finally have a little time for that.”
There are two hiring announcements.
Dr. Fry said, “We do still need a medical director, and this medical director will be more like a one day a week person, not five days a week, and we’re proud to say that it’s going to be Dr. Taweh Beysolow. Dr. Beysolow has many, many years in the in the Florida Keys, and about 40 years of experience himself, maybe a little more than that. So he’s double board certified in internal medicine and also in nephrology. He brings to us not only a wealth of experience, but he’s just a gem. He’s just a joy to be around. He kind of lights up the room when he’s around, and I think that everybody is going to enjoy his presence, his expertise, and we’re really looking forward to that, but he’ll be one day a week in the clinic. So what we’re going to do, because I think it’s important that the health department focuses on, yes, the clinic, the internal aspect, the four walls, if you will, but also the things outside of our four walls, which is, we still have too many strokes, too many heart attacks. We still have work to do with Narcan, with overdoses, all that kind of stuff. So I’ve also hired Dr. Antonio Gandia. Dr. Gandia is an emergency department physician. Many, many years in emergency medicine, again, brings over 40 years with him. So Dr. Gandia and I are going to work together to kind of shore up some things that we’d like to work on together, which is a paramedicine program. We’re going to work on, again, those things that are more community based. So we’ll have a medical director in Dr. Beysolow and then we’re going to have a community physician, Dr. Gandia. I think it’s going to be just phenomenal. I couldn’t be more excited about it.”
For more information, click here: https://monroe.floridahealth.gov/