Promote Healthy Communities and Healthy Behaviors

Coalition Building: OCPHS has a long history of collaborating with healthcare providers, state and local non-profits, and community groups and organizations to find solutions to health issues in our communities. Examples include: Coordinated School Health, Family Service Collaboratives, Children First of Olmsted County, Action on Obesity, Good Samaritan Dental Clinic, and the Children's Mental Health Collaborative.

Classes, home visits, and consultations to promote healthy pregnancies, healthy behavior choices including increased physical activity and proper nutrition in the workplace and in our schools. We help teens learn how to make good decisions regarding sex, drugs, tobacco and alcohol. We provide education to individuals and families related to family planning, improved parenting skills, nutrition, breastfeeding and safety.

Tobacco Prevention efforts have included educating the community, especially our youth, about the dangers of tobacco use and secondhand smoke and limiting access to tobacco products to youth. Olmsted County led the state in passing the Tobacco Sales and Youth Access Ordinance and was the first county in the state of Minnesota to enact a Smoke-free Restaurant Ordinance in 2002.

          Assure the Quality and Accessibility of Health Services

Clinic Services includes STD/HIV testing; Immunizations for infants, children and adults; Tuberculosis testing and treatment; health screenings for qualified individuals aged 2 months to 21 years through our Child and Teen Checkup Clinic; and the Women, Infants and Children nutrition education program. Interpreter services are available for those individuals who speak Spanish, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Arabic/Sudanese and Somali. Please request an interpreter when making your appointment.

Correctional Health Services are provided for detainees at the Adult Detention Center and the Many Rivers Regional Juvenile Center. Services include health promotion, disease assessment and screening, sick call, and disease control.

Case management and consultation includes home visits to assess home care needs and the quality of care provided to clients on Medical Assistance Waivered and Alternative Care services.

Referrals to community resources are provided by all staff. Individuals may be referred to a variety of different resources depending on their status and needs. Areas of referral may include: Chemical use evaluation and treatment, child care, education, employment and vocational services, counseling services, food and clothing needs, healthcare, housing options, language services and advocacy. Community Connections is a family resource directory updated by public health each fall and can be found in Reports, Plans & Statistics

                                         Prevent the Spread of Infectious Disease

Disease surveillance and outbreak investigations for reportable diseases and suspected food and waterborne illnesses to assure the health and safety of residents and visitors.  Health screenings, immunization assessments and referrals for new refugees.  Tuberculosis Program provides tuberculosis skin testing (mantoux test) for a small fee. Follow-up services (including chest x-rays, physical examinations, and additional lab cultures) are provided to those with positive mantoux tests, and necessary medications to treat the disease are provided through the MN Department of Health.

STD/HIV education, testing and treatment is provided through our low cost and confidential clinic by appointment only. HIV testing is also available with same day test results.

Immunizations are offered for all required and recommended vaccinations, including: measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, haemophilus infuenzae type b, hepatitis a and b, varicella, and pediatric pneumonia. Influenza and pneumonia vaccinations are provided each fall in our clinic and during our annual walk-in influenza vaccination clinics.

                                         Protect Against Environmental Hazards

Assessments of public areas include working with restaurant owners and managers to ensure food safety, periodic testing of public swimming pools, health and safety assessments for campgrounds and manufactured home parks.

Water and Radon Testing: residents with private wells can have their water tested for a nominal charge. Home owners (existing or new-construction) can also test their homes for radon free of charge through a federal grant.

Clean-up oversight of clandestine drug labs: environmental health staff work closely with law enforcement officials and provide coordination and oversight for the cleanup of methamphetamine labs to assure the building is free from dangerous residues in accordance with the Clandestine Drug Lab Cleanup ordinance.

                                                Prepare For and Respond To Disasters

Disaster Response Advisory Group is made up of members from local law enforcement, Rochester Fire Department, Mayo Clinic and Olmsted Medical Center, Olmsted County Public Heath, Zumbro Valley Dental Association, Federal Medical Center, American Red Cross and other non-profits, and the Minnesota Department of Health. This group meets to discuss and address issues related to public health threats and emergencies, including bioterrorism, and assure organized, efficient, and coordinated responses to such events.

Public Health Emergency Planning and Preparation involves developing strategies, guidelines and protocols related to disasters and emergency response, including threats from bioterrorism, other outbreaks of infectious disease and large-scale health emergencies. Efforts are focused in the following areas:

• Surveillance and Epidemiology Capacity: making sure systems are in place to rapidly detect and investigate unusual outbreaks of illness.
• Health Alert Network: making sure we can rapidly, safely and securely exchange information about unusual disease patterns with state and other local public health and healthcare entities.
• Health Information: being ready to provide useful, understandable, timely and accurate information to the public during a health emergency.
• Education & Training: making sure our public health staff and our many partners are adequately trained to respond to all varieties of possible public health emergencies.
• Readiness Assessment: regularly assess the county plan to manage emergencies, upgrade the plans to respond to potential threats and test the plans to ensure they work.
  

                                                    National Public Health Background

Today people are living longer than ever before. In 1900, the life expectancy for the average American was under 45. Now it's in the upper 70s. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this 30-year life span increase is due, in large part, to public health initiatives. Five of those years can be attributed to improvements in drugs and medicine. The other 25 years are the result of public health initiatives such as vaccination, sanitation, chlorination, and pasteurization, giving us safer and healthier foods, homes, and fluoridation of water. Public health provides broad protection in areas affecting our entire population--assuring that our air, water, and food supplies are clean and protected from disease and contamination.

Ten Great Public Health Achievements -- United States, 1900-1999:

• Vaccination
• Motor-vehicle safety
• Safer workplaces
• Control of infectious diseases
• Decline in deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke
• Safer and healthier foods
• Healthier mothers and babies
• Family planning
• Fluoridation of drinking water
• Recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard

These ten great public health achievements of the 20th Century provide a great overview of the work of public health. They also help to see that public health achievements are more than the result of health department functions – public health success is the result of state and local health departments, non-profits, community groups, philanthropic organizations, and individuals and families all working together on issues that affect the entire community.