“I feel like we’re going to be in a good place in 2024,” Sumpter said. “I think we’re finally getting that solid foundation that we’ve been looking for here. We’ve got the right team players in the right place, moving their programs forward.”

Since taking over as the director of the department in February 2023, Sumpter has focused on giving her employees more independence, making sure that they have the confidence to work their programs. Through that, the WIC program has seen growth, as well as the Care for Yourself program that provides breast and cervical cancer screenings for uninsured people.

“I wouldn’t be able to get as far as I have at this agency without my team,” Sumpter said. “I feel supported. I hope they feel supported.”

The Family Foundations program, which works with families that are prenatal all the way up to kindergarten with weekly home visits from family support workers, has caught the attention of the state, Sumpter said.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
The Fort Dodge Police Department and the Webster County Sheriff’s Office received 200 MobileDetect fentanyl test strip kits from the Webster County Board of Health using opioid settlement funds.

“The state’s really looking at us in a good light right now,” she said.

Amanda Trice, a family support worker from the Family Foundations program, reached out to one struggling mom about a year ago after the mom experienced some postpartum depression and psychosis after giving birth to her twins.

“I will say it’s definitely what saved my life,” Megan Thies said of the program.

The Family Foundations program is an affiliate of the Parents as Teachers programming, according to Program Coordinator Brooke Kammerer. The program has three main components — parent and child interaction; child development and working on child-centered parenting; and family wellbeing.

The Webster County Health Department has had a Family Foundations program for more than a decade, but this is the second year it’s been an affiliate of Parents as Teachers.

“We’ve had several families be in the program for many years and we’ve had some families only need like a year or so and maybe request to discharge because they’ve met their goals,” Kammerer said.

Thies recalled the dark place she was in mentally when she began working with Family Foundations.

“When Amanda and Brooke came to my house for the first time and sat down, I don’t even think we introduced each other, I just looked right at them and broke down bawling and asked them if they’re going to take my babies away, asked them if that was their game,” Thies said. “They said no, we’re here to help you. We’re going to get you better.”

This kind of support is “so needed” for parents, she said.

“Moms need to know that there’s support out there,” Thies said. “Moms need to know how to ask for support, but then their support system needs to know what to watch for and this shows them what to watch for; it shows them the red flags.”

Postpartum mental illness can affect any mother and there’s no “cookie-cutter” way it can affect a mother, Thies said.

“Postpartum depression, psychosis and anxiety is such a real thing, but people don’t want to talk about it until after the mother does something,” she said. “Then it’s a big deal. Then everybody’s so sad and everybody’s so broken and ‘What could we have done?’ Well, it’s right here.”

The department has families from a variety of backgrounds who have enrolled in the program. It is a free and voluntary program, Kammerer said.

Webster County Health recently was able to increase the number of families it can help through this program because of an increase in funding from the state, adding 14 more families. In total, the program can help 54 families at a time. The funding for the program comes from the state’s Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visitation (MIECHV) program.

Families can contact the WCHD directly to enroll in the program, or they can be referred by their pediatrician, ob-gyn, WIC or other maternal health programs.

For more information on the Family Foundations program, call the WCHD at 515-573-4107.

The WCHD Family Foundations and Maternal Health programs have also recently launched a Postpartum Support Parent Cafe for mothers to connect with other moms and learn about resources available to them. Upcoming support group meetings are from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Jan. 23, Feb. 6, Feb. 20, March 5 and March 26.

“I’ve always said I don’t want to really look back — I just want to stay focused on moving forward and what we can do to continue to have those relationships in the community and hopefully be an agency that people look to for help,” Sumpter said.

In December, the WCHD was also able to use some of the funds the county is receiving from the opioid settlement from various opioid manufacturers to purchase 200 fentanyl test strip kits for the Fort Dodge Police Department and the Webster County Sheriff’s Office.

The test strip kits allow officers to safely test seized drugs for fentanyl without any direct exposure.