Gillian Voigt

My hometown, Charlotte, North Carolina, is the heart of Mecklenburg County. I was looking forward to speaking with a representative from the Mecklenburg County Health Department’s office. I was not at all surprised with the trends that were the most formidable to those in the Public Health profession.

The first trend is that of obesity. Let’s face it, when one thinks of the South, they think of fried chicken and cornbread and beer. That thought is correct. Food is a huge part of southern culture. So is hard work. While Charlotte is a metropolis, there are other parts of Mecklenburg County that are less developed. Over half of the population in Mecklenburg County is blue-collar workers. When you need food, quick, the easiest place to stop is a Bojangles or a KFC. The Health Department has a Fruits and Veggies initiative in place to encourage behavior change.

The second trend is the lack of health care. 17 Percent of the residents lack health care. That is an enormous amount. This again has to do with the fact that many residents of the county are poor, and with health care being so costly, other things, such as food and shelter, come before healthcare. There are free clinics throughout the city, which is a step in either the right or the wrong direction, depending on who you ask. Access to care is the department’s number 2 priorities.

The third trend is substance abuse. Since some of Mecklenburg County is a metropolis, this did not come as a surprise to me. In the poorer, urban communities, substance abuse has remained at a high, steady rate for years. However, there is a new trend emerging. Among the wealthy families on the southern end of town, prescription drug abuse is skyrocketing, especially among those attending high school (more than 14%). Something that I once would have considered only fact in Prime time TV soap is an actual problem in the very place I grew up.

The fourth trend is responsible sexual behavior. This coincides nicely with the second trend. Those without access to health care are neither rarely informed nor aware of choices they when it comes to contraception. The public school system in Mecklenburg County only teaches abstinence, further hindering the knowledge of those sexually active adolescents. Although HIV has not been a priority for the Health Department in the past, they are starting to look at it and give HIV awareness and prevention a higher priority.

The fifth and final trend is Violence prevention. This trend coincides with the third trend, substance abuse. Homicides are the leading cause of death for those between the ages of 15 and 54. The county average for violence and death closely follow the national average for violence. The Health Department is starting an initiative amongst the urban poor for warm, maternal care, and to stop dating violence.

These trends, while not surprising, were very interesting to hear about and to research. I would be interested to see how these trends matched up with other parts of the east coast, both further north and further south. I look forward to a time when I will be a part of identifying and researching these trends.