GREAT FALLS — In May of 2022, Abigail Hill was selected as Health Officer for the Cascade City-County Health Department after the position was left vacant for nearly six months.
In December of 2021, Trisha Gardner, who was health officer at the time, stepped down to work with the Montana Department of Public Health & Human Services.
After just over a year of Hill taking over the position, she reflected on her time serving in a leadership role.
"When I look back at my last year, a lot has happened, both with my personal growth and the growth within the organization," Hill said. "After a year, I think I can say that I do love the job and that I'm where I need to be. It was a transition from being a service provider, working as a home-visiting nurse, to the level of involvement that I have at the health department right now. I really like that opportunity because I've been very passionate about public health, and that hasn't waned since being in this position. I have been able to look at the services that we provide, bring the organization to it, bring some structure, bring my strengths, and so it's been great to see how that's starting to come to fruition after implementing some changes over the last year."
Hill originally served as the Health Department's public health nurse for five years. When asked what was most challenging during her transition, Hill said it was the budgeting aspects due to the number of programs and grants associated with them.
"When Trisha left, we had an absence without a health officer, and I think it was just playing catch-up," Hill said. "That's where I feel like I've come so far. We also didn't have a prevention services manager for a while, so I had to wear that hat. However, that was invaluable to me because I was able to learn in such a deep level about their programs, grants, etc. I feel like that benefited me being in the position that I am in now."
She added that having a nurse practitioner has allowed the health department to treat and educate people on chronic diseases. Pauline Conway is the nurse practitioner who specializes in diabetes, blood pressure, and cholesterol.
Hill said, "It also allows us to test someone for an STD or STI and provide that treatment. We're now able to provide that full care, whereas before, we said, 'you're positive, now you need to go to another provider to get prescribed treatment.' That's been really exciting for our agency. Also, there have been some growing pains because it changes your practices, your billing, your insurance, and your model. Trying to figure that out together as an agency on top of everything that I was doing was a challenge, but an exciting opportunity for us."
Over the course of the year, Hill noted that her biggest strength has been collaborating with community partners.
"I think Great Falls quickly becomes a community when you start to get involved with professional organizations, non-profits, or coalitions, they bring you in. I had a strong background, knew a lot of people, and worked with a lot of organizations. I was really excited to grow those relationships in a different role.
Hill said building community relationships is one of her biggest goals moving forward.
"We are a community health department," she said. "It's looking at not only our services, how they fit in, and how they help bolster another program or service agency, but looking at what we're not doing. To me, that's how we can connect our staff with what's going on in the community, and what's going on at the health department. I think there's just a lot of room to grow."
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