Bond Calls for More Disabled Child, Home Support at NY Budget Hearing

By ERIC SANTOMAURO-STENZEL
ALBANY

In her role as president of the New York State Association of County Health Officials, Otsego County Director of Public Health Heidi Bond called for continued support for programs relating to toddlers with disabilities and home safety in budget testimony before state lawmakers on February 10.

“Local health departments are the front line of public health,” Bond said.

“At a time when federal public health programming is increasingly unstable due to staffing losses, stop work orders, and reduced reliable access to data, state leadership has never been more important,” Bond told legislators.

On behalf of NYSACHO, a membership association of local health departments across the state, Bond highlighted two priorities for this year’s state budget: restoring funding for the Healthy Neighborhoods Program and strengthening and stabilizing the Early Intervention Program.

The Healthy Neighborhoods Program provides in-home assessments and interventions to reduce negative outcomes for asthma, indoor air quality, lead poisoning, and other injury prevention, according to the state Department of Health’s website. The program includes 17 counties and New York City.

As an example of success in the program, Bond cited the installation of smoke detectors in Cayuga County that assisted in two house fires, enabling people inside to escape.

“Eliminating this program would harm vulnerable residents and dismantle a trained public health workforce that is already stretched thin,” Bond testified.

The Early Intervention Program, passed federally in 1986 and implemented at the state level by the Bureau of Early Intervention in 1993, aims to assist families with disabled toddlers with a variety of medical services.

Bond said that counties are not receiving “the full assessment amount needed to sustain program coordination.”

She called for two fixes: the state meeting a 50-50 cost split with local agencies, and that the state establish a regular disbursement schedule so counties may plan.

“These are not new programs or expansions, they’re practical, prevention-focused investments that stabilize systems already in place and protect New Yorkers where it matters most: at home, and in early childhood,” Bond said.