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It should not be a surprise then, that Stout touts her department's aggressive promotion of Montana's Children's Health Insurance Program, a low-cost program that provides well-child exams for low-income children. "We have the highest enrollment of any county in Montana," she says. "We're quite proud." For her, the results are tangible: a public health nurse by training, she began her work in Flathead County in 1984, and now sees the mothers whose infants she used to visit with, coming back with their grandchildren.
In 1989, Stout became director of community health. But the promotion also took her away from direct contact with the community she loves. "It was really hard to give that up," she recalls. Now she looks forward to those days when she can fill-in for her staff, although the duties of running a 12-person department make those opportunities few and far between.
Her new duties also eventually took her back to college and she received her Master of Public Health from the University of Washington in 1998. At the university she focused on environmental health and wrote her thesis on lead poisoning—a prevention project she's incorporated into her department's programs. In 2006, she received the Mary E. Soules Distinguished Service Award, Montana Public Health Association's highest honor.
Stout may have been set on a path toward public health from childhood: She was one of the "Polio Pioneers"—one of the 1.8 million American children who participated in the polio vaccine field trials in 1954. She remembers being lined up with other students in her elementary school and being vaccinated against the disease that eventually paralyzed 1 in every 5,000 children. "I think it was a pretty gutsy thing for those parents to do," she says. But, she adds, the disease was frightening and catastrophic—most parents leaped at an opportunity to protect their children.
All too often today she encounters parents who are misinformed about the supposed dangers of vaccinations and other public health measures. Now some parents need to be convinced that vaccinations are a good idea. "You have to be armed with the correct information," she says. "We can't let our guard down; we are but a plane ride away from the next epidemic."
As a community health director, Stout's job encompasses a broad range of issues— everything from preparing for bioterrorism attacks and influenza pandemics to prenatal education and well-child programs. Right now her department is preparing to offer in-house primary care health services. "We are going to be overwhelmed," she says. "There are so many people without health insurance: they are going to come swarming in." Still, she relishes the prospect: the innovative program will provide a needed service to people in the community and improve the level of health care they receive. It may not solve all their problems, but Stout takes the long view. "If you go into public health expecting instant gratification, you're in the wrong business," she says. "You're going to be able to make a difference but it may be years before you see that difference."
"But if you can impact one other person's life," she pauses, "it's a big deal." For Stout, the proof is no further away than her grandson.
Alumni Profile
The Best People are in Public Health: Boni Stout
For more than 30 years Boni Stout has been a fierce advocate of public health education and access to public health care—including well-child exams. But for the director of community health for Montana's Flathead City-County Health Department that advocacy took on a personal dimension when her daughter took her son in for well-child exam late last year. That routine check-up revealed that Stout's 3-year-old grandson, Jak, had neuroblastoma, a common childhood cancer. Luckily the exam caught the cancer early enough and Jak was a good candidate for successful treatment. "No one wants to hear a cancer diagnosis," Stout says. "The only worse scenario is having the cancer discovered too late."It should not be a surprise then, that Stout touts her department's aggressive promotion of Montana's Children's Health Insurance Program, a low-cost program that provides well-child exams for low-income children. "We have the highest enrollment of any county in Montana," she says. "We're quite proud." For her, the results are tangible: a public health nurse by training, she began her work in Flathead County in 1984, and now sees the mothers whose infants she used to visit with, coming back with their grandchildren.
In 1989, Stout became director of community health. But the promotion also took her away from direct contact with the community she loves. "It was really hard to give that up," she recalls. Now she looks forward to those days when she can fill-in for her staff, although the duties of running a 12-person department make those opportunities few and far between.
Her new duties also eventually took her back to college and she received her Master of Public Health from the University of Washington in 1998. At the university she focused on environmental health and wrote her thesis on lead poisoning—a prevention project she's incorporated into her department's programs. In 2006, she received the Mary E. Soules Distinguished Service Award, Montana Public Health Association's highest honor.
Stout may have been set on a path toward public health from childhood: She was one of the "Polio Pioneers"—one of the 1.8 million American children who participated in the polio vaccine field trials in 1954. She remembers being lined up with other students in her elementary school and being vaccinated against the disease that eventually paralyzed 1 in every 5,000 children. "I think it was a pretty gutsy thing for those parents to do," she says. But, she adds, the disease was frightening and catastrophic—most parents leaped at an opportunity to protect their children.
All too often today she encounters parents who are misinformed about the supposed dangers of vaccinations and other public health measures. Now some parents need to be convinced that vaccinations are a good idea. "You have to be armed with the correct information," she says. "We can't let our guard down; we are but a plane ride away from the next epidemic."
As a community health director, Stout's job encompasses a broad range of issues— everything from preparing for bioterrorism attacks and influenza pandemics to prenatal education and well-child programs. Right now her department is preparing to offer in-house primary care health services. "We are going to be overwhelmed," she says. "There are so many people without health insurance: they are going to come swarming in." Still, she relishes the prospect: the innovative program will provide a needed service to people in the community and improve the level of health care they receive. It may not solve all their problems, but Stout takes the long view. "If you go into public health expecting instant gratification, you're in the wrong business," she says. "You're going to be able to make a difference but it may be years before you see that difference."
"But if you can impact one other person's life," she pauses, "it's a big deal." For Stout, the proof is no further away than her grandson.
