Health District

Vision

Create the healthiest county in Texas where all people can live, work, play, and thrive.

Mission

To improve the health and well-being of the citizens and environment of our county.

Core Values

Excellence: We are dedicated to implementing best practices and continuously improving our effectiveness through the use of data, evidence, and innovation.

Equity: We actively seek to understand the lived experiences of individuals and communities and use an equity framework to guide all programs, policies, and practices.

Accountability: We hold ourselves to the highest standards, and as effective managers of the public trust are accountable to all residents of McLennan County.

Commitment: We remain steadfast in our championing of opportunities to improve health, community wellness, and access to services.

Empowerment: We provide members of our community with the resources, services, tools, support, and information they need to make healthy choices.

Environmental Health Division

• Food Handler & Food Manager’s Certification courses available online in 8 languages!
• Food establishment regulation program that permits and inspects where food is stored, prepared, served, or sold, such as, restaurants, convenience stores, grocery stores, cafeterias, schools, nursing homes, bars, mobile food vendors and temporary food booths.
• Annual Childcare facility inspections
• Annual swimming pool inspections
• Enforces smoking ordinances for cities who have adopted this policy. 
• OSSF (On-Site Sewage Facilities) program regulates all installations and maintenance of septic systems and other types of sewage disposal systems. 
• Provides information and referrals about additional environmental health topics as requested. 

Health, Education, Promotion, & Prevention (HEPP) Division

Epidemiology

• Monitors and investigates potential disease outbreaks.
• Mitigates disease outbreaks through guidance on appropriate preventative measures, treatment, and control. 

Health Education

• Presents on health topics upon request. 
• Provides healthy lifestyle classes.
• Cooking demos.
• Hosts 2 community coalitions to improve people’s health across McLennan County

Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP)

• Provides education to the community on how to prepare for disasters. 
• Trains our medical reserve corps volunteers to assist the Health District in responding to large-scale public health emergencies or natural disasters. 

Mental Health Access Program

• Provides a directory for anyone searching for a mental health provider

HIV/AIDS & STI Division

• We have an HIV case management program with caring staff and nonjudgmental attitudes who can assist with locating medical homes, medications, housing, and support for persons living with HIV. Anyone living with HIV can call for an appointment to see if they qualify for any of these services.
• We have expert staff in our STI Clinic that have been caring for people a long time. The clinic offers testing, treatment and/or prescriptions for sexually transmitted infections for a low sliding scale. Never let the lack of money be the reason you don’t come for a checkup. Most of our tests are either urine or blood tests.
• Our HIV Prevention program works to provide free HIV testing in McLennan and surrounding counties. Outreach and testing are given to individuals and groups that are not able to come to the STI clinic. This program offers free HIV testing in a variety of locations. We strive to offer these outreach services throughout our communities.
• Provide free condoms at the health district and at numerous locations. To see a full list of locations where free condoms are offered, go to HIV/AIDS Services & STI Clinic and click on the “Free Condoms Available” section.
• Pregnancy testing.

Nursing Division

Immunizations Clinic

• The Immunizations Clinic offers recommended vaccines for children and adults.
• Travel vaccines such as yellow fever and typhoid are available from our Immunization Clinic with the most reasonable fees in the state.
• The Immunization Clinic only has access to shot records for clients we have vaccinated, or if the client is registered and consented in ImmTrac2 (The Texas Immunizations Registry).
• The Immunization Clinic can provide mobile vaccination clinic upon request for a variety of immunizations.
• Our COVID-19 program offers vaccinations at home through our homebound program by appointment.

Tuberculosis Prevention & Care Clinic

• Comprehensive evaluation and treatment of clients suspected of, or confirmed to have TB disease. Evaluation and treatment include symptoms assessment, blood work, chest x-ray imaging, specimen collection, and directly observed therapy (DOT)
• Investigation of contacts to persons identified with TB, screening of high-risk individuals, and treatment for person identified with latent TB infection (LTBI). The decision to treat LTBI is determined by our local health authority based on information collected during the evaluation process.
• Fees for clinical services provided for LTBI are based on a sliding scale of household income. Medications for TB and LTBI are provided by the Department of State Health Service pharmacy at no charge to the client.
• Anyone in need of clinical services for tuberculosis and those referred through the electronic disease notification system will be seen regardless of ability to pay.
• In-person TB education is available by contacting our office. Topics may include reporting protocols, screening and evaluation, basic TB information and specialized TB practices.
• Low cost Quantitative N95 fit testing for the community.

Vital Statistics Division

• Issue certified copies of long form birth record filed in Waco dating 1910 – present.
• Issue certified copies of abstract form birth records filed in Texas dating 1926 – present
• Issue certified copies of death records for death that occurred in Waco.
• Provide guidance to correcting Texas birth and death registrations.

Women, Infants, & Children (WIC) Division

• Provides nutrition counseling.
• Offers food benefits for grocery stores.
• Breast-feeding counseling and support.
• Teaches nutrition classes.
• Showcases cooking demos.

If you would like to request the Health District present at your event or attend your event, we have a wide variety of health topics available. However, if there is a specific topic not listed below that you wish to have information on, please let us know. Presentations may be geared to the age of the audience, from children to adult. Our health topics include, but are not limited to:

• Hygiene & Human Development
• Nutrition & Exercise
• Chronic Disease
• Tobacco Prevention and Cessation
• Worksite Wellness
• Other Health Topics by Request

For questions, please contact us at healthed@wacotx.gov.

To schedule a presentation or event, click the Event Request Form link below.

Event Request Form

Are you interested in volunteering or interning with the Health District? Click the link below and fill out the application.

Volunteer/Intern Application

The Health District is involved in different events across McLennan County. Check out our calendar below. We'd love to see you!

Health Calendar