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National Public Health Week
When it comes to making our communities healthier, we all play a part. Public Health is leading the charge in that effort and National Public Health Week, April 5 - 11, is a time to learn more about the services local health departments offer to help promote health and prevent disease.
Whether it's promoting healthier eating habits or getting children immunized against dangerous diseases, your local health department employees are constantly working to make positive changes in their communities. But Public Health isn't limited to just a few services. In fact, Public Health workers are tasked with everything from serving on the front lines during a local or national emergency to ensuring that restaurants are complying with health regulations.
Your local health department is responsible for protecting and advancing the public's health in a number of ways including:
• Standing ready to respond to public emergencies. Public Health staff is on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is prepared to respond to both manmade and natural disasters such as hurricanes, radiation emergencies, terrorist attacks and pandemics (such as H1N1 flu).
• Providing immunizations and vaccinations for children and adults. Part of living a healthy life is protecting yourself from disease. Immunizations help reduce absences at work, school and social events, and decrease the spread of illness in the home, workplace and community.
• Testing for lead. Lead paint in a family's home can pose a serious health threat to that family. Children are especially vulnerable to the poisoning effects of lead paint. Your health department can provide a lead screening through a simple
blood test.
• Providing a host of environmental health services. The Environmental Health Division of your health department performs inspections to help protect the public's safety. Environmental Health inspects restaurants, tourist accommodations, on-site sewage management systems, public pools, and tattoo studios to ensure compliance with health regulations. In addition, Environmental Health specialists investigate all reported animal bites and possible rabies exposures; respond to public concerns related to indoor air quality; and provide technical assistance, health consultations and health assessments of identified hazardous waste sites.
• Facilitating the Women, Infants, Children's Nutrition Program (WIC). WIC is a food supplement program for pregnant women, infants, children to age 5, breastfeeding women, and post-partum women. WIC promotes breastfeeding, provides access to nutritionists, and provides vouchers for healthy foods such as
milk and eggs.
• Offering child health services. Local health departments work hard to protect our most important resource, children, by providing, newborn hearing screenings, hearing, vision, and dental screenings, and Medicaid (well child) health checks. In addition, programs such as Children's Medical Services (medical care to children from birth to age 21 who have disabling conditions or chronic diseases) and Babies Can't Wait (early intervention program serving children with significant developmental delays) are also available.
• Offering women's health services. Women's health is a key component to public health. Local health departments offer family planning, breast and cervical cancer screening, mammograms, breastfeeding education and support, and STD testing for women.
For more information on Public Health, go to www.gachd.org or www.dch.georgia.gov.