National Public Health Week ends Monday, culminating seven days of recognizing the importance of public health in our communities. This year’s theme, “Protecting, Connecting and Thriving: We are all public health,” is a timely one as La Plata County Public Health celebrates its first quarter as a county department. As the newest team to join the La Plata County organization, public health staff members and other county employees are working together to provide programs and services that create and foster positive results for health, safety and welfare for all county residents.
This endeavor is at the heart of La Plata County’s mission, and achieving it is only possible through building connections and partnerships to help every member of our communities thrive. Each of the services and programs that La Plata County Public Health Department provides relies on building trust with the residents, businesses and community partners we work with every day. Achieving our vision of being a trusted community resource and partner, providing equitable programs and services to elevate and maximize human and environmental health in La Plata County is only possible through these relationships.
We are committed to this throughout our programs and services, whether it’s in our clinic where we provide immunizations and sexual health services, or in our environmental health division where we work with septic system professionals and owners to be sure that systems are properly designed, installed and maintained, or our retail food inspectors who work with restaurants and markets to be sure the food they serve is safe.
Our behavioral health programs that work to build partnerships, relationships and coalitions to prevent suicide, help individuals avoid or stop tobacco use, reduce the harm associated with injecting drugs, and create opportunities for young people to build resilience and make healthy choices demonstrate how critical connections are in effectively addressing community health concerns. Our parent-child health programs – SafeCare, Nurse-Family Partnership, WIC and Health Insurance Literacy – are all founded on building trust and solid relationships to connect families with resources and support that lead to healthy outcomes for parents and families alike.
One of the ways we are working to further fortify our connections in the community is by providing Spanish-language access to public health programs and services. With a full-time interpreter/translator on staff, La Plata County Public Health is working to expand and improve language equity with the goal of removing barriers to access. We provide educational and informational materials in Spanish, as well as in-person interpretation for our services and programs.
We are also working to put together La Plata County Public Health Department’s first-ever Public Health Improvement Plan, which will incorporate the priorities identified in San Juan Basin Public Health’s 2023 community health assessment to map out the next five years’ direction at the health department. This plan will be built from wide-ranging community input that articulates the areas of greatest concern for public health, and will rely on partnerships and connections throughout the communitywide public health system for success.
National Public Health Week provides an annual opportunity to reflect on the importance of public health in our communities and La Plata County Public Health Department is proud to be part of the celebration – and to do the work to help La Plata County residents thrive now and every day!
Theresa Anselmo is the interim director of La Plata County Public Health Department. Reach her at tanselmo@lpcgov.org.
