Montgomery County Recognizes National Public Health Week April 4 – 10

Per MCPD:

For Immediate Release: Friday, April 1, 2022

Montgomery County will commemorate National Public Health Week (NPHW) April 4 – 10 with a series of social media posts based on this year’s theme, “Public Health Is Where You Are.”

The County’s Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS) Twitter and Facebook platforms will include daily messages corresponding to daily themes:

• 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)

Public health promotes and protects the health of people and communities where they live, learn, work, and play. Public health services’ programs, part of DHHS, monitor health status and implement intervention strategies to contain or prevent disease (including bio-terrorism and emerging diseases); foster public-private partnerships, which increase access to health services; develop and implement programs and strategies to address health needs; provide individual- and community-level health education; evaluate the effectiveness of public health programs and strategies; license and inspect facilities and institutions affecting public health and safety; and monitor, assess and communicate community population health data and information via Healthy Montgomery, the County’s community health improvement effort.

Two episodes of the  “What’s Happening MoCo” podcast will be available for listening as part of NPHW activities.  One episode will feature  Cristina Ruiz, DHHS Public Health Services, discussing current programing and future innovations to improve cancer outcomes in Montgomery County and the second episode will feature a discussion with Pat Keating, RN, co-chair of the Improved Pregnancy Outcomes Program Community Action Team, on maternal complications during and after pregnancy and related racial disparities.  The episodes will be available via podcasting platforms such as Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google, and Alexa/Amazon Music,  the “What’s Happening MoCo” Facebook page and on the County Cable Montgomery website on Thursday, April 7.

Recent DHHS activities in support of public health include:

• Public Health Services has implemented outreach, education, and navigation services under a State-administered Centers for Disease Control grant to reach minority populations in zip codes disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
• Aging and Disability Services’ Area Agency on Aging and the County’s Public Information Office are initiating a campaign to promote the importance of COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots for older adults, especially for those in areas of the County zip code data shows lower booster rates.
• Children, Youth, and Family Services implemented the testing coordination team to integrate access to human services across the County’s COVID-19 testing efforts as residents were tested, identified as positive through contact tracing, and referred by the health teams.

NPHW is sponsored by the American Public Health Association, the national membership and advocacy organization for public health.  Read more about NPHW on the association’s website.

Follow DHHS on Twitter @MoCoDHHS and on Facebook.  Follow NPHW and Healthy Montgomery on Twitter.