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Florida Health in Seminole County Celebrates National Public Health Week

By Mirna Chamorro

April 03, 2018

Sanford, Fla. - The Florida Department of Health in Seminole County (DOH-Seminole) is celebrating National Public Health Week (NPHW) from April 2-8. This year’s theme is “Changing Our Future Together,” which highlights the importance of engaging communities and partners in all sectors as public health workers strive to put health within everyone’s reach. This week is also a time to celebrate the contributions of the people who are dedicated to public health.

“Our health department employees and all public health workers are committed to protecting the public’s health every day in a variety of ways. Serving clients at health clinics, educating through outreach, investigating disease outbreaks and community partnerships are some of the ways we all work together to ensure a healthy future in Seminole County,” said Donna Walsh, health officer for the Florida Department of Health in Seminole County.

Each day of NPHW focuses on a different public health topic that is critical to ensuring healthy communities. Public health workers along with partners are working to meet the specific needs of our community members guided by our Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP). Our CHIP includes strategies that address each priority health area identified by NPHW.

As outlined in the DOH-Seminole strategic plan the areas of focused priorities for our Health Department over the next three years include: to improve STD and HIV, asthma, diabetes, infant mortality, obesity and cancer rates in Seminole County. To achieve this goal, we will be working with community partners to reduce and eliminate disparities and improve the overall health of our community.

Below are some examples of partnerships as well as activities taking place during NPHW:

All partnerships are essential for the Seminole County Community. Aligning with the NPHW theme for Monday on behavioral health, DOH-Seminole recently engaged in a collaboration with Hispanic Family Counseling, Inc. to deliver their individual and group counseling services from the health department’s Airport Boulevard location every Wednesday and has a partnership with Turning Point of Central Florida to offer mental health services for HIV patients. DOH-Seminole also collaborates with the Sheriff’s Office and many other community organizations to address the Heroin and Opioid overdose crisis through the Seminole County Heroin and Opioid Prevention Task Force.

Every Tuesday in April (April 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th) there will be free confidential STD testing from 8:30am to11:30am, and 1:30pm to 3:30pm at DOH-Seminole’s Health Clinic located at 400 West Airport Boulevard in Sanford.

Ensuring the Right to Health is an important piece to Seminole County’s public health puzzle. DOH-Seminole educates and involves partners outside the health sector who impact where we live, learn, work and play in improving the health of our community and promotes collaboration across sectors.

On Saturday, April 7th the community is invited to participate in the 4th Annual Live, Work, Move Seminole 5K & Kid’s Dash starting at 7:30 a.m. at the Oviedo on the Park-Center Lake Park located at 299 Center Lake Lane in Oviedo. To register please visit www.seminolecohealth.com.

To learn how the department is celebrating each day of #NPHW, be sure to follow the department on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @HealthyFla.

To learn more about NPHW and how you can get involved, visit http://www.nphw.org/

About the Florida Department of Health

The department, nationally accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board, works to protect, promote and improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county and community efforts.

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @HealthyFla. For more information about the

Florida Department of Health please visit www.FloridaHealth.gov.