Public health effort is vital for a vibrant community

What else does public health do for you? It builds a foundation for a healthy America and assists in ensuring that your community is a safer and healthier community for your family. The Pueblo City-County Health Department is committed to promoting the health and protecting the environment of the people of Pueblo County.

How does the Pueblo City-County Health Department contribute to the health and well-being of Pueblo? The department is involved in the following:

• Protects you from communicable diseases by monitoring and investigating communicable diseases, controlling outbreaks of disease, and providing education focusing on disease prevention.
• Protects individuals from communicable diseases by providing low-cost immunizations for diphtheria, whooping cough, polio, measles, mumps, three day measles, hepatitis A and B, rotavirus, haempohilus influenzae type b (Hib), pneumonia, influenza, shingles, chickenpox, meningitis, human papilloma virus (HPV).
• Provides pregnancy testing, sexually transmitted disease counseling, testing and treatment.
• Provides HIV testing and pre/post test counseling.
• Provides tuberculin skin testing and follow-up.
• Provides head lice inspection.
• Provides blood pressure checks.
• Enhances County emergency preparedness through professional education, tabletop exercises.
• Provides public health and disaster preparedness education and training for volunteers in the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC).
• Educates the community on a wide variety of health related topics.
• Operates a video lending library on health topics for teachers, nurses, school counselors, community organizations and members.
• Collaborates and partners with other agencies to promote tobacco cessation classes, promotes programs to prevent initiation of tobacco use among our youth, provides education on the dangers of secondhand smoke.
• Partners with other community agencies to promote community-based programs to reduce obesity and diabetes in our community (LiveWell Pueblo).
• Provides follow-up, information/education, referrals to families, extended families and others when a sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) occurs.
• Provides specified nutritious supplemental foods and nutrition education to women, infants and children who qualify.
• Provides public health nurse case management services and care coordination for children with special health care needs; provides specialized clinics including neurological, orthopedic and rehabilitation clinics.
• Provides education/information on cleft lip and/or cleft palate to families and assistance regarding feeding, obtaining needed equipment, accessing insurance, and medical care.
• Provides genetic screening and counseling clinic including testing, education, counseling, and follow-up.
• Provides heart risk assessment including blood pressure, pulse, height, weight and cholesterol testing.
• Provides educational information and administers required or recommended immunizations for persons traveling outside the United States.
• Provides health care services including birth control supplies; health education and counseling; sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment; physical exams; cancer screening, pre-pregnancy counseling.
• Provides an adolescent pregnancy prevention program offering education, counseling, linkages with community agencies, and a media campaign to encourage teens to make responsible, healthy decisions focusing on the prevention of adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

In addition to all of these programs and services, the Health Department surveys, looks, listens, monitors and watches for new public health concerns/issues and develops strategies to successfully deal with these issues.

Yes, the Pueblo City-County Health Department is building a foundation for a healthy Pueblo.

Watch for the grand opening of the energy-efficient and much needed new Health Department building at 101 W. 9th Street, Pueblo around the first part of August 2009.

For additional information on your public health programs and services call (719) 583-4300.

Public health: Everyone, every day, everywhere.

Pueblo West resident Jane Anne Hollandsworth is a retired nurse whose 30-year career was spent primarily in nursing education and public health.

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