Despite unprecedented pandemic conditions, community health colleagues at HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls partnered with other health-related organizations in Chippewa County to produce education on COVID-19.
“People were struggling, coping with all of the uncertainty of COVID-19 – especially early on in the spring,” said Laura Baalrud, community health facilitator for HSHS St. Joseph’s and Sacred Heart hospitals. “We wanted to provide some information on self-care and resilience.”
Baalrud said she, in conjunction with community partners, were hearing that people who never used services such as food pantries needed to do so now because of COVID-19. And unfortunately, because of the pandemic, those local programs were limiting their hours. The group saw the need for a document with local resources.
“When people are stressed, they don’t usually have the capacity to make many phone calls over and over to find services and changing hours of services,” Baalrud said. “So, our partner group divided up the phone calls and put this resource together.”
The resource includes tips for self-care, resilience, medical needs, mental health needs, food, transportation and employment resources. The resource pages are found on the Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District and Chippewa Falls Family Resource Center websites, as well as others throughout the community.