Friday, April 10, 2009

Home, sweet home

Today, as National Public Health Weeks draws to an end, we’re focusing on public health in the home. By this we mean not just the healthiness of the homes themselves and the food, water and other items contained within, but also the healthiness of the family that lives there.

This is a logical place to end the 2009 observance of National Public Health Week. which aimed to raise awareness of the importance of public health in the current health reform discussion.

Although it is an essential part of the picture, health is so much more than just access to care, which is most frequently discussed. It’s federal funding that provides for public health programs across the nation, it’s communities that are built in a way the supports physical activity, it’s workplaces that provide resources to help employees become tobacco-free, it’s schools that offer healthy food choices and it’s families that support each other in living and adopting healthy behaviors.

To keep our nation’s families healthy, we must work to ensure that public health continues to be able to support them through the lifespan. And our nation’s families have to keep up their end of the bargain too. They have to work to live a healthy lifestyle and set an example for the children that could help us become the healthiest nation in one generation.

Public health will do its part. What will you do?

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