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National Public Health Week, April 6-12, 2009

Building the Foundation for a Healthy America

Each day, every day, and in more ways than you may realize, public health is an important part of your life. When you wake up in the morning and brush your teeth with clean, safe, and often fluoridated water, public health is there. Later, when you drop your children at a licensed and inspected day care center, public health is there. As you drive to work wearing your seat belt, eat lunch in a licensed -- and hopefully smoke-free -- restaurant, and visit a friend or family member in a licensed hospital or nursing home, public health is there.

There are public health workers who record your birth and your death and review those and other statistics to help make plans for future health care initiatives. Each day you and your family live without fear of polio and at greatly reduced chances of measles, mumps, chicken pox, whooping cough, and other illnesses that once plagued our children, public health has played a role.

For more than 10 years, America has celebrated National Public Health Week during April. This year, as our national leaders work toward strengthening our health care system, the Mississippi Public Health Association encourages everyone to support the critical work of public health. Your county public health department is more than just a place to get immunizations for your children and flu shots for yourself. There are programs that provide screening for breast and cervical cancer, encourage testing and provide treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, and provide specialized treatment and counseling for children born with genetic and physical disorders or who are developmentally delayed.

Public health is also on the front line in creating a healthier environment through regulation of water supplies, individual septic systems, restaurants, hospitals, nursing homes, day care centers, laboratories, and many others. During natural disasters and epidemic outbreaks, public health professionals work tirelessly to help restore services and protect you and your family from further risk and hazards. Regardless of need or socioeconomic status, public health professionals work to protect the health of you and your family every day.

The role and work of public health extends beyond those required and provided through governmental entities. Our colleges and universities educate doctors, nurses, nutritionists, social workers, engineers, health educators and many others who will go on to play a role in protecting the public's health. Organizations that work to educate the public and provide resources to reduce diseases and conditions such as asthma, diabetes, cancer and many others also play a crucial role in the public health system.

The work of public health and the importance of public health professionals are often overlooked or taken for granted in America, but the work of public health is never done. MPHA asks that each of you support the importance of public health in your community, in Mississippi, and in America through contacting your local, state, and national leaders and encouraging them to fully support the resources -- financial, physical, and human -- needed to continue to protect the health of every Mississippian. Public health is the foundation for a healthy America, and we need your help to grow and strengthen that foundation for a healthy future for all Americans.

Charles Daughdrill, Executive Director
Mississippi Public Health Association

MPHA Mission

MPHA's Mission is to promote public and personal health in the State of Mississippi and to promote professional development of public health workers through advocacy and education activities.

MPHA Objectives

As objectives in support of its mission, MPHA shall:

• Exercise leadership with health professionals and the general public in health policy development and action;
• Provide annual educational sessions on topics and issues pertinent to public health;
• Enhance the prestige of public health work as a career; and
• Initiate, advocate and support needed action that will promote and/or improve the health of the people of Mississippi.

© 2009 Mississippi Public Health Association

MPHA is an affiliate of the American Public Health Association (APHA)