Sydney Wise- Community Trends in Canyon County

For this assignment, I decided to look at my home (Canyon County, Idaho) to find out about community trends.  I talked to Barb Felty, the Administrative Assistant at Southwest District Health. 

Barb explained the recent trends going on in the Southwest district of Idaho.  The first that she mentioned was screening women for breast cancer.  Lately, there has been a decline in numbers of the women that regularly schedule a mammography.  In effort to increase that number, the district health department has decided to take part in the Idaho Public Health Association’s Women’s Health Week event.  This offers free breast cancer screenings to women who qualify.  

  

The second trend that has been going on is banning smoking.  Recently, Idaho State University in Pocatello banned smoking on their campus. This has spurred a chain-reaction where many businesses and private citizens have been calling out for bans on smoking.  There have been surveys that have been distributed among the community to better understand the attitudes toward smoking. In addition, the Southwest District Health has been working to promote their smoking cessation program through advertisements.

Recently, the health department has been working to promote sex education in local high schools.  The past programs that were utilized were primarily focused on abstinence. Instead of only teaching abstinence from sex, health officials want to include information about contraception. Teachers can still outline the positive benefits of abstinence, but will also teach about how to prevent STDs and teen pregnancy by teaching about safe and protected sex.

A large portion of public health efforts are being aimed at preventing the flu this year.  This year in particular, there have been a large number of children that have been sick and have needed to see a heath care provider.  The Southwest Health District has made it a priority to promote flu shots and have even offered free shots to women and children.  They have teamed up with the local Walgreens to have big trailers in the parking lot where people are able to easily come in and receive a free shot.

Lastly, Barb explained their efforts in relation to Diabetes prevention.  Certain parts of the county have a particularly high risk for developing Diabetes.  They have started a new campaign called “5 steps” which outlines 5 easy steps to prevent diabetes.  Campaign messages emphasize that diabetes can be controlled by eating healthy foods in the right amounts, getting regular physical activity, taking diabetes medications as prescribed, and testing your blood glucose (blood sugar) on a regular basis. The program also offers tips to help people with diabetes keep their blood glucose under control, and emphasize the importance of knowing the facts about Diabetes.