Eric Landon Smart

Health 100

Eric Landon Smart

Community Trends Assignment

Kelli Bradshaw.

The State Department of Arizona Cancer Registry office,

Even Though Kelli works specifically with Cancer registry she shared some of the recent focuses over all to improve public Health for Arizona’s community.

Top Five Community Trends For Arizona

1.     Leverage Licensing. Leverage licensing is the job of the Public Health Department to make sure that medical and Healthcare facilities are performing adequately and proficiently. It is a focus of the department to make sure people are authorized and licensed to be providing Health care.

2.     Infant Mortality- A new program is being introduced to help raise awareness and address infant mortality rates in Arizona. This program aims to develop more advanced parental care at maternity care homes, including psychosocial support, education and health promotion. Arizona is 22^nd in the nation in infant mortality and has decreased by 6% in the past six years but still feels there is a long way to go.

3.     Whopping Cough. Whopping cough has been a growing problem not only in Arizona but across the nation.  In 2012 Arizona experienced 988 cases and substantial outbreaks are occurring in other parts of the nation. Whopping cough can be server especially for children. Promoting people to be vaccinated should help control and reduce this outbreak from continuing. It is especially stressed for pregnant woman to get the booster to stop them from getting sick but also from passing to their child.

4.     Norovirus. Norovirus is a particularly troubling virus that causes very unpleasant vomiting and diarrhea for 24 to 48 hours. Spring is a vigorous norovirus season which infects millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Arizonans. It is a very contagious virus that can spread from person to person via food, water and surfaces with microscopic particles of vomit and feces. The best way to prevent this is good hygiene.

Development of a World Class Trauma Center. A couple years ago Arizona did not really have a trauma system. After four years Arizona now has 31 trauma centers and hopes to only continue increase to have a world-class trauma center. The next step to continuing this great development is putting together a group of experts to examine the trauma registry in detail. Also plans have been made to consult with stakeholders to develop priorities and plans for the future