National Public Health Week

Every month I’ve focused on at least one healthcare-based day/week/month. It was usually linked to a disease, like National Cancer Prevention month or Bone and Joint week. These yearly observances are important because they help us pay attention to information that may help us either avoid a disease, better manage our health when we have the disease, or give us hints on how we can be better caregivers to a loved one that has the disease. I’ve always learned something as I did research for this blog, and I’ve changed some of my habits because of the things I’ve learned. Well . . . this week we take a broader look at how our health can be impacted when we celebrate National Public Health Week.

This observance is a project of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the theme this year is “Public Health is Where You Are”. Much of the APHA’s efforts center on access and they realize that where you live affects your community’s health. There are ways that we can make our communities healthier, stronger and safer. One way is to realize there may be barriers that keep some people in our communities from accessing the care they need as they face different health challenges. The National Public Health Week has identified daily themes for the week, they are:

Racism: A Public Health Crisis (Monday)

Public Health Workforce: Essential to our Future (Tuesday)

Community: Collaboration and Resilience (Wednesday)

World Health Day: Health is a Human Right (Thursday)

Accessibility: Closing the Health Equity Gap (Friday)

Climate Change: Taking Action for Equity (Saturday)

Mental Wellness: Redefining the Meaning of Health (Sunday)

Clicking on the title can help you find out more about each one of the themes. Reading through the different themes helped me understand how important each of these themes affect our communities and how are our own health can be affected.

As you might know from my earlier blogs, I always try to find some way that each of us can make a difference. Most of us get our healthcare close to where we live, in our communities. We may have faced one or more of the barriers mentioned above as we work to access our own healthcare providers. I’d like to talk about three ways you can personally become involved in helping your friends and family and improve the healthcare access in your community.

Transportation – I would guess that all of us have encountered problems with getting to the doctor or some other healthcare providers for a scheduled appointment or know of someone who couldn’t get to the pharmacist to pick up a prescription. There are many local organizations that are looking for volunteers to help with anything from rides to the doctor to being a visitor to people who are homebound. Get involved, find a way you can help remove the transportation barrier in your community.

Access to available programs – There are many federal, state, and local programs available to help seniors gain access to needed healthcare services.  A resource that you can use and share with your family and neighbors is found by clicking here. This is the U.S. Administration on Aging web site, and it will help connect you to the state and local services that are available to older Americans in your communities.

Older Americans Act – The Older Americans Act (OAA) funds critical services that keep our nation’s seniors healthy and independent—services like meals, job training, senior centers, health promotion, benefits enrollment, caregiver support, transportation, and more. It’s reauthorization is being debated right now in Congress and must be renewed before it expires. There are proposals that would cut some of the funding for this important program that has been helping seniors since 1965. I would urge you to contact your Washington representatives and tell them you want to make sure the Older Americans Act gets funded without cuts to these life supporting programs.

Our community is where we receive our healthcare. We all need to recognize that many of us have barriers that inhibit our ability to obtain needed care. We need to become involved in helping those in our community overcome those barriers and obtain access to the life changing and lifesaving miracles of medicines and care that are available.

Best, Thair