HDNW celebrates community collaboration during National Public Health Week
Public health is a specialized kind of healthcare that focuses on preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health. And during National Public Health Week, April 1-7, the Health Department of Northwest Michigan (HDNW) is recognizing how impassioned residents and professionals have worked together to accomplish great achievements: like ending multiple plagues through vaccinations, advancing protections of the public food and water supplies, improving nutrition and dental care for families, and more.
Everyone from students and organizations, communities, and public health workers are applauding the collaborative efforts and their outcomes of public health with this year’s theme is “Protecting, Connecting, and Thriving: We Are All Public Health.”
“Our goal of Healthy People in Healthy Communities seems simple, but it takes a high level of commitment to attain and maintain,” says Dan Thorell, HDNW Health Officer. “Our residents’ health is impacted in a variety of ways: food, water supply, proper sewage disposal, health screenings, prevention and control of infectious diseases, and immunizations. We focus on these daily so our neighbors living throughout Antrim, Charlevoix, Emmet, and Otsego counties can focus on their families, careers, and healthy living.”
Throughout the week, HDNW is releasing a series of new videos to explain who we are and what we do. The videos will be featured on our social media channels. Here is a link to one of those videos, Healthy People in Healthy Communities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBA8N-Ryycc.
In addition, HDNW representatives will spend Wednesday, April 10, in Lansing meeting with local elected officials to discuss public health legislative priorities and funding needs for local programs. HDNW representatives will also attend a presentation on the 2024 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps Findings Report, which contains a nationwide collection of health data that can be broken down by county. “As your local health department, we focus on specific services, like clinics and inspections, but we also maintain a big-picture view of how communities flourish when their basic needs are met,” says Holly Campbell, HDNW Deputy Health Officer. “We want everyone to know that they can help make their communities healthier, safer, and stronger by supporting and engaging with one another—and with us.”
To view more videos, ask questions, or following our social media accounts, go to:
• YouTube: hdnw
• X: nwhealthorg
• Instagram: healthdeptofnwmichigan
• Facebook: nwhealthdepartment
• Website: nwhealth.org
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