National Public Health Week
April 7, 2009
(Lincoln, ME--) This is National Public Health Week (April 6-12, 2009), and your local Healthy Maine Partnership--S.P.R.I.N.T. for Life in Lincoln-- and Penobscot Valley Hospital are encouraging people to make healthy lifestyle choices. The theme of this year’s event is Building the Foundation for a Healthy America. The event is coordinated through the National Public Health Association.
 S.P.R.I.N.T. for Life is a grant-funded program through Penobscot Valley Hospital. Both agencies play vital roles in promoting healthy choices in the areas of nutrition, exercise, sleep, drug-use prevention, and smoking cessation. As a national, we are not nearly as healthy as we could and should be, but there are plenty of easy steps we can take in our daily lives to improve our overall health and wellbeing.
Public health is a crucial component to improving our nation’s wellbeing, because it affects every facet of our lives, including our communities, our workplaces, our schools, and our homes. Each day this week, people are being asked to focus on a different setting in which public health makes a difference.
Monday: Your nation – Building the Foundation for a Healthy America. We’re asking national leaders to form health policies that can ensure better public health and to help ensure that resources will be there when we need them both in emergencies and for day-to-day health challenges. Ideally, these policies would help everyone get the health services they need and possibly prevent them from getting sick in the first place. Leaders must also take health into consideration when they are proposing policies for other sectors, such as transportation, agriculture or education.
Tuesday: Your community – Addressing the Impact of Where We Live on our Health. Public health agencies are asking policy makers to take health into consideration when forming new regulations. These decisions aren’t only about health services. For instance, public buildings can be designed so the disabled can easily access them. State and local politicians can work together to enact tobacco-free laws. Health centers can also get involved offering a host of educational and easy-to-access services, such as when Penobscot Valley Hospital provides flu clinics or seminars on healthy eating.
Wednesday: Your workplace - Supporting Healthy Employees and Healthy Businesses. Businesses can create tobacco-free workplaces and hold regular safety drills to make sure employees know what to do in emergencies. Workplaces can make sure they utilize the necessary or recommended safety equipment such as goggles or gloves. They can also provide healthy lunch or snack options, offer programs to help employees deal with stress or grief, and supply a livable wage—ensuring that economic concerns don’t negatively affect health.
Thursday: Your schools – Nurturing Healthy Students and Educators. Schools can provide vision screenings and dental services to keep kids healthy and able to learn. School based health clinics can provide care to those who may not otherwise have access to services. Physical education classes teach lifelong fitness skills and prevent obesity, and the schools can provide healthy breakfasts and lunches and help kids learn healthy eating habits.
Friday: Your home – Protecting and Promoting Health in Our Daily Lives. From the time we’re born, public health is part of our lives. Prenatal care, immunizations, diagnostic tests, and other services help build a foundation for healthy lives. When we get older, at home care can keep some people from entering nursing homes. In our homes, public health keeps us healthy by promoting lead-free homes and ensuring the water is safe to drink. Public health even extends to the other products—like making sure the toys our children play with are free of harmful toxins.
How you can get involved?
1. Learn more about public health--go to www.generationpublichealth.org.
2. Spread the word about public health and its importance.
3. Contact your elected officials and urge them to make public health priority.
4. Help raise awareness by adding health education to your local events.
5. Help your loved ones take small, daily steps toward better health.
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