First Ever Canadian Public Health Week
The Canadian Public Health Association’s inaugural Canadian Public Health Week takes place this week. While the COVID-19 pandemic helped to shine a light on who and what public health is, there really is much more to what we do than mass vaccination campaigns and managing outbreaks. Public health units, like CK Public Health, have long been looked at as “Guardians of health” and are always on the lookout for the public health issues that can affect the community, and then working hard to address them.
The theme for the first ever Canadian Public Health Week is “Public Health Matters”, and it aims to recognize the contributions of public health agencies, while also bringing attention to the critical issues that improve our overall health and wellbeing. The week also exists to make the important connection between public health and the local organizations, agencies and communities it serves.
“When we are doing our job well, we are somewhat invisible,” says Dr. David Colby, Medical Officer of Health with CK Public Health. “But without the important work that we do in health promotion and disease prevention – the overall health and wellbeing of the community we serve would change drastically, and for the worse. Communities cannot survive, let alone thrive, without dedicated, upstream public health interventions.”
CK Public Health offers a wide range of programs and services to individuals and families who live throughout Chatham-Kent. These are outlined in the Health Protection and Promotion Act and are provided according to a set of guidelines called the Ontario Public Health Standards. Some of these programs include:
- Communicable disease control
- Food safety
- Home visiting
- Infection prevention and control
- Inspection of food premises, personal service settings, pools, licensed childcare, small drinking water systems, and others
- Oral health
- Physical activity promotion
- Pre-natal education, programs and services
- School health
- Tobacco control
- Vaccination
- Vector-Borne Disease control
- and many more
Follow along with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram this week as we share some interesting facts about CK Public Health and the important role it plays in the community of Chatham-Kent.