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A Healthier America – One Community at a time……
A Healthier America starts one community at a time. States vary in the way they’re organized to provide public health services. Some, like Connecticut, have a mainly centralized organization with small, often part-time, office in each town. New York in contrast has a strong county base for health departments which are funded by both local and state funds. The challenges of providing this public health function vary by size of county, its industry, the number of health resources and whether or not it is a “full-service” county. (Some counties have to rely on New York State Department of Health for their environmental issues). One thing that is a common theme with all health departments however is a focus on primary and secondary prevention. This means our work, unlike a medical treatment facility, is focused on disease prevention and early identification to help mitigate spread or long term effects. Using tobacco as an example, a major thrust of our efforts is to prevent teenagers from starting to smoke. We also provide free cessation to anyone who wants to quit and who lives or works in Orange County to try to reduce long term effects. I am happy to report that adult smoking in Orange County has decreased over the past five years, a step in the right direction. Collecting data such as this is also part of a Local Health Department’s role and is available in our Community Health Assessment which is posted on the County website at orangecountygov.com.
Health Department employees check out our hotels and restaurants to try to prevent outbreaks and also respond to them. Our nursing staff reviews positive lab tests from hospitals and doctors offices to help our colleagues prevent the spread of communicable disease in our community. Being a part of the continuum of health care and disease prevention in Orange County is a duty and a privilege.