For this assignment I called in to the County of Riverside
Department of Public Health. I wanted to speak to Susan D. Harrington who is
the Director of the Department of Public Health for Riverside, but she was too
busy so I called into the Family Planning Department, that I found information
for on their online pamphlet, and spoke to Eric Medina who is over some part of
the Family Planning Department but I couldn’t understand exactly what he said. .
He gave me what he sees as the top 5 trends that he saw occurring which
included teen pregnancy in the area, teen alcohol and drug use, obesity/heart/blood
pressure issues, lack of immunization, and something he called “digital
motivation.”
When he said teen pregnancy first, I immediately thought of
the high school that I went to (just a couple years ago) ad I thought of the 17
girls who were pregnant and of the day care center we had at my high school. He
talked about teen pregnancy and all the things that go along with it. Some
being that babies born to teen mothers usually have health complications such
as birth defects and don’t get the nutrients they need. As well as most pregnant
teens lack the prenatal care, this is how the baby and mother are monitored. Also
these teens are more likely to have high blood pressure as compared to women. A lot of these teenagers also end up dropping
out of school because they can’t pay to have someone watch the baby and that
leads to a continued cycle of not having proper health care for them and their
child because they don’t have an education, then cant get a very good job if
even they are able to work.
Teen alcohol and drug use has been rising for the past few
years. He explained teen alcohol and drug use not just as a personal health issue.
Too much alcohol/drugs can lead to death, stupid actions, and other
complications. However the main thing he focused on was the unhealthy relationships
that they create. He spoke of how families are ripped apart and how a teenager
(although it can be more than just in teenagers) becomes addicted or so into
the drugs that he tears away from other parts of their lives. He also mentioned that more education on these
substances needs to be enforced but getting it into more than a schools health
class wasn’t common.
Eric told me that he sees issues of obesity, diabetes, heart
complications, and blood pressure issues running in families. He talked about
the need for families to work together to cut back and to eat right. He said
that the trend seems to be decreasing but there is still a lot of work to be
done. Parents need to be educated on proper eating habits and need to teach and
feed their kids/families healthy food. One trend that he said has also been occurring
that he hopes is helping and seems to be teaching people the importance of
abstaining from so much unhealthy fats is this new “flexitarian” diet which encourages
people to eat less meat.
Immunization was something I was not surprised of when he
said. He said that just recently there had been word of TB exposure at a high
school in the county. He spoke of the risk that people give their children when
they don’t get them immunized and the risk they place on their whole family if
they don’t have the proper immunizations. Under-immunization can lead to
preventable spread of disease and it should be just that: preventable.
The last one he said
was digital motivation. This is those workout apps on your phone. He says these
online or digital motivates are quick easy cheap ways that people are getting
to work and to be health conscious. There are many people who know they are
suppose to exercise or eat healthy but these apps help them actually do it. He
described the easy accessibility of health information digitally is good
because people don’t have to pay money and almost everyone has some sort of
digital device even if they don’t have a health care provider.
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