STE. GENEVIEVE — On Wednesday, October 27th Ste. Genevieve County Library hosted its first ever Lunch and Learn.
The program featured representatives from the Community Counseling Center, Ste. Genevieve Health Department, Ste. Genevieve County Memorial Hospital and Ste. Genevieve County Library.
“The goal of this program was to look at how the community responded to the last year and a half and what we not only have learned from it, but how it has affected our community,” stated Long.
Our biggest challenge this entire time has been dealing with the changes in how COVID-19 operated and then hitting exhaustion in November of 2020,” stated Health Department Director, Jennifer Mueller. “It didn’t help that we were still doing normal everyday Health Department services on top of our COVID responsibilities, even when surrounding counties cancelled traditional services we were still doing them.”
COVID-19 also brought forth new needs in our communities, especially at the hospital.
“One of the biggest changes COVID made in our services is that we added an infectious disease specialist to our staff,” stated Dr. Pautler of SGCMH. “Before this pandemic our staff could reach out to colleagues in other hospitals for advice. But the pandemic meant everyone was busier and that resources really needed to be in house to not only direct our staff on best practices and assist us with other hospital needs, but also be a resource to the entire community.”
Jennifer Hornberger at the Community Counseling Center stated that she anticipates the addition of Group Therapy for school-aged kids who are dealing with anxiety due to the loss of loved ones or the stress that the pandemic has caused them.
“We have seen a real need arise in our community for these services, we hope to add enough staff to bring this to fruition,” she commented.
The community conversation was made possible by a grant from the ALA and Shawn Long, Library Director, is working with other community partners to host more of these starting sometime in 2022.
If you have questions about this or any other programs, SGCLIB staff is ready to answer your questions. Check out the library’s Facebook page, come by the library, or contact them at contact@sgclib.org or 573-883-3358.