An Ounce of Prevention Episode 2: What Does The Health Department Do Anyway?

This episode of An Ounce of Prevention began with a simple question: What does the Reno County Health Department do, anyway?Turns out a lot - and it’s not just vaccinations and restaurant inspections. For the record, the State of Kansas took restaurant inspections away from local health departments more than 10 years ago and gave them to the Kansas Department of Agriculture. But I digress - our local health department does way more than most of us realize, working daily to study trends, anticipate issues, and deploy measures to help us all live healthier lives. We have a program that helps older adults do light house keeping and tasks around the house - which helps people to live better independently in their own homes. They schedule foot care for seniors who struggle to care for themselves. They help manage maternity education programs, healthy food and living, substance misuse information. And, of course, they help track the spread of infectious diseases - and develop plans to help our community respond effectively. There’s so much that falls under their work, it’d take too much to list it all here. I really enjoyed this conversation with Candace and Kara - and I am certain you’ll learn something about the Reno County Health Department that you didn’t know before! An Once of Prevention is made possible through a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas Pathways to a Healthy Kansas grant.Our theme music is Never Going Home by Charlie Lewis, Free Music Archive, licensed CC BY-NC-SA