Each month, Eagle Radio in Great Bend will recognize groups or individuals that make a big impact on our community. This Appreciation Month is highlighting the Barton County Health Department.
By KEN CARPENTER
Great Bend Post
Bev Frizell has been working at the Barton County Health Department for more than 30 years. But that was not the reason she was recently awarded a certificate by the Barton County Commission. Instead, the Commission honored her for being chosen as a mentor to new coordinators of the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program in Kansas.
Frizell, a registered and licensed dietitian, is a native of Claflin. She attended Barton Community College with thoughts of becoming a nurse. But those plans didn’t last long.
“The first semester I was out there I had to take a nutrition class, and after being in that class, I changed from nursing to dietetics,” she remembered.
Frizell went on to Kansas State University where she graduated with a degree in dietetics. That’s when she learned about a job at the Barton County Health Department.
"There was an opening and I was coming out of college, didn't have a lot of money, and it was like, well, there was an opening close to Mom and Dad so I can live with them until I can earn some money and start paying off student loans,” she said. “I loved the job so I stayed."
Frizell started off providing nutrition assessments and counseling to WIC clients. Since then, Frizell’s work has touched the lives of thousands of residents in Barton Stafford, Pawnee and Rush counties. Through the years, she moved up to become the coordinator of the program.
So who benefits from the work Frizell is doing?
"The WIC program is a supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children,” Frizell explained. “When they qualify for the program, we provide nutrition counseling to young families, breastfeeding education and as part of that, when they finish the certification appointments, we provide nutritious foods for them so that they can help meet their nutritional needs."
There may be some misconceptions about the type of help WIC recipients are receiving. Frizell described the purpose of the WIC benefits.
"WIC is not a welfare program,” Frizell noted. “We provide nutrition education. It's not just getting anything that they want. They have to purchase nutritional foods. When they leave, they come away with a card, it's similar to a debit card, but they can only spend it on specific foods. When we are visiting with them, we tailor their food package to their needs, but it is generally milk, fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, eggs, those staples that are nutritious."
After showing identification and proof of income, WIC recipients will receive much more than food. They will be making repeat visits to see Frizell and her staff. Frizell explained what a WIC client can expect.
“We get a little bit of medical data, we poke a finger for iron levels, we get heights and weights and they then visit with a dietician and have a nutrition assessment and counseling,” said Frizell. “When they leave, we load their card with their WIC benefits. We see our clients every six months for the nutrition counseling. But they also have some other nutrition education along the way. So they should have at least four contacts a year."
The WIC program serves children up to the age of five. Frizell said her job is to look at each child as an individual with specific needs. She noted that she sees children who are overweight and underweight. She works with mothers to teach them how to deal with those specific issues.
"Each nutrition education is tailored to the client needs so we have a nutrition assessment process that we do and find out what might be leading to either the over or underweight and then providing assistance with managing that," she said.
Starting last year, the Barton County Health Department became the epicenter for managing the County’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, from Covid testing to contact tracing to administering the new Covid vaccines. During that time, Frizell kept the local WIC program running.
“During Covid we continued to provide services,” Frizell recalled. “WIC never shut down. We continued to provide services. We did have authorization to do some remote certification so we could do some telephone counseling so if people were not able to come in, we could do that by phone. But the majority of people still came in."
Earlier this year, Frizell was asked by the Kansas WIC program to become a mentor for new WIC coordinators across the state, a role she is looking forward to. She describes what that will mean to the new coordinators.
“When they are hired on, I will just be a resource,” she said. “They will pair me up with somebody to help remind them about deadlines for certain things, how to function within this job...just being somebody to walk alongside them to do that. They'll still have all the resources available from the state WIC agency as well."
County Health Director Karen Winkelman praised Frizell at the County Commission meeting where Frizell received the certificate.
"We are very fortunate to have Bev as an employee of the Barton County Health Department for 30 years,” Winkelman said. “She knows the WIC program, the maternal child health program inside and out. So this is a great honor for Bev and also a good representation of our health department.”
Frizell is married with two children. Her son lives in Hays and will be attending Fort Hays State University. Her daughter just graduated from Kansas State University and is working as an engineer in Topeka.
After serving Barton County for 30 years, Frizell says she looks forward to continuing her work at the County Health Department.
Read the previous Appreciation Month stories by clicking HERE.