EDUCATION IS PREVENTION
Talking to my
local Public health official was such a cool experience! Going to school at
BYU, we often get the Public Health take on what is happening in Utah County so
getting the ‘skinny’ of what is happening in my hometown and province was so
incredibly interesting to me. The conversation I had with Jessica Koegler (R.N)
who is a Public Health Nurse for my community made me want to drop everything
and go home to help in increasing awareness of all the public health issues.
STD’S!
When I asked
Jessica what the top trend or issue was the first thing out of her mouth was
STD’s. This shocked and horrified me! I could not believe that my city of
90,000 people would have such a problem with this. She said the two most prevalent STD’s are syphilis
and chlamydia and that young teenagers and college students have the highest
incidence rate, another shocker! I asked her why this might be and she rebutted
very simply that it was the lack of education combined with the stigma of
having an ‘STD.’ While my mind was still trying to wrap around the fact that MY
city was infected with syphilis and chlamydia and that they were the top public
health concern Jessica continued to go on about the government’s Sexual Health
Clinic that is underused and underfunded.
There are programs for those infected but the prevention efforts are
minimal. I was and still am horrified.
Aboriginal Health
After extensively
covering the topic of STD’s Jessica said that the next issue was aboriginal
health. The city I live in is 40 minutes
away from an Indian reserve thus aboriginal health is of major concern to
public health officials. Though not true
with all the Indians on the reserve, many find themselves relying on the
government for funds and end up forfeiting knowledge of how to work and how to
manage money and consequently fall into addictions like smoking and
drinking. This is a concern because the
children of the adults who fall into this then grow up with these influences
and then continue in the footsteps of their parents. Statistics show that the aboriginals have a
35% teen pregnancy rate, die at a much younger age (and normally from liver or
kidney failure), and aren’t about to change despite government efforts.
Immunization Negligence
The third trend we
discussed was the lack of immunization.
The southern part of the province that I live in is very heavily
populated with members of the LDS faith and from what Jessica said, there are
multiple groups or ‘colonies’ of ladies who band together and pact to not
immunize their children with the excuse that the disease ‘does not exist
anymore.’ This is a pride issue and a lack of education on how diseases spread
and in turn leads to the fourth trend that is whooping cough.
Whooping Cough
A few months back
there was a large whooping cough outbreak in my area due to the lack of
immunization. There is a certain group of people called Dutch Reforms who live
in Southern Alberta and who do not immunize their children consequently this
lead to an outbreak of whooping cough around the area but also in the large
hospital that serviced Southern Alberta.
Once people heard that the hospital had whooping cough many decided to
stay home and avoid being treated in an effort to not get a worse strain of the
virus which in turn lead to a few deaths (mostly among premature babies).
Food Scarcity and Obesity
The last trend
that Jessica and I discussed was one that had never even crossed my mind and
that was food scarcity or poverty and how it affects the general health of the
community as well as obesity rates.
Apparently these are normal families that have normal sized homes and
two or three cars but are too busy trying to keep track of material things that
they do not save money for food and find themselves living off of food stamps
and unhealthy, cheap foods.
Overall
Jessica said that the biggest thing is a lack of education in all of these
fields and that more health classes should be offered. I really enjoyed my conversation with her and
find that it really did make me more aware of what my city was facing and more
aware of things I can do to help. That is public health!
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