Public Health Community Trends

Ashley Neves

October 30, 2012

Public Health Community Health Trends

Arizona Department of Health Services

Sheila Sjolander Assistant Director Of Public Health Prevention

1. Increase in obesity: 

I was able to talk to Ms. Sjolander over the phone and without hesitation she told me that obesity is the number one health concern in the state. She told me that since it is a National concern that it then causes it to become a states number one priority. She told me that they are seeing an increase especially in children. Ms. Sjolander then told me that obesity is causing many problems in health and that it is becoming increasingly prevalent in Arizona.

2. Diabetes rates have doubled:

I was told that since obesity is the number one concern that along with it that diabetes rates have doubled due to obesity. I felt also impressed that it could be due to an older population. Back home we call these people “snow birds” they come down from where they are living and live in Arizona for the winter to avoid the snow. Because this population is older and retired it could be more likely that they are overweight and have diabetes due to old age. It could also have to do with the Indian reservations that are really prevalent in Arizona.

3. Chronic prevention and management:

She told me that prevention was the biggest goal for the Arizona Health Services. She told me that since we are no longer in the era that is concerned with infectious disease our focus is now concerned with chronic disease. Ms. Sjolander emphasized that chronic disease is preventable. She insisted that to control chronic disease that it heavily relies on prevention and management. She recommended education specific to the Hispanic population as well as an increase in education amongst all Arizonians. She also specified that in certain areas it is difficult for people to keep their chronic disease under control due to lack of health care or ability to get to a doctor or hospital.

4. Work for policies:

Ms. Sjolander also told me that there needs to be more work in the policy aspect of public health in Arizona. She said that education shouldn’t be the only thing that the public health department should be talking about. Ms. Sjolander said that it needed to be a multi-faceted system that integrated education with prevention and policy. She made the statement, “we need to learn how to change our environment to prevent chronic disease.” She went more in depth talking about how our environment is not helping us but hindering us. She said that changes needed to be dealt with and more policies should be written to address the issues. She also stated that through our environmental change that this could ultimately influence our behavior for the better. We could do this my modifying school lunches, safer communities, more grocery stores in urban settings, and wellness programs.

5. Integration:

I found this interesting but she told me that funding is based upon categories so there is a cancer fund and is separate from a CHD fund. She said that public health professionals in Arizona are looking into a more integrated approach to funding. They were thinking about switching it into a “chronic approach.” They wanted to integrate physical health with behavioral health. They think that this will better help those with difficulty losing weight as well as those who have mental illnesses. They want to not have separate programs because they believe now that combining them will better benefit the citizens.