Open houses in Iroquois Falls today and Timmins next Friday are celebrating the Porcupine Health Unit’s 75th anniversary.
Manager of infectious diseases and clinical services Lynn Leggett says the first office opened in Timmins in 1945,followed by Iroquois Falls and Matheson in 1950, and Cochrane and Hearst in ’55.
You might remember Mrs. Gordon and Mrs. Murphy coming to your class. Leggett says public health nurses are still doing that.
“We’re still in the schools and that’s one of our big partners is our schools and our school boards in every community,” she remarks.
“We provide our school-based immunization programs, we provide nutrition programs, we provide support to teachers on different health topics, we do some concussion work, we do suicide prevention, a lot of different programs that we support and work at the schools.”
The open house at PHU headquarters in Timmins is next Friday from 11:00am to 1:00pm.