Bed bugs don't appear to spread disease; however that will offer little comfort to those who are suffering under their infestations. We, The City of Hartford Department of Health and Human Services, have chosen to take a dynamic approach towards reducing or eliminating these nuisances from our community, an urban center of approximately 125,000 residents. Our case management approach to Bed Bug complaints has successfully partnered sanitarians, housing Inspectors, public health nurses, epidemiologists, property management/owners, tenants, pest control professionals, faith based groups, and community health partners as stakeholders in solutions. With the Environmental Health office serving as the fulcrum for this intervention we have been able to successfully reduce or eliminate most recidivist infestations for the past 2 years.
 |
| image: urbanentomology.tamu.edu |
The complaint driven process is tracked across an
interactive map, which has helped tremendously to focus efforts and resources
towards more at need problematic communities and affected housing stock. The
bed bug intervention team is divided along each group’s strengths and tasks.
This is done to prevent redundancy in services and maximize intervention
impact, precision, and response. All this is through the Environmental Health
office as the lead. All organizational
communication as well as education and community outreach is through the
Environmental Health office as well.
Our City elected leaders stepped up in 2012 to introduce
legislation which aided to standardize our intervention and bring all relevant
agency responsibilities under the auspices of the Director of Health, following
the ICS command structure. This has further promulgated a cohesive sustainable
model that has been successful and can be exportable to other environmental
health interventions.
No comments:
Post a Comment