Each year, during the first full week of April, Green County Public Health celebrates National Public Health Week (NPHW). The American Public Health Association created this initiative to recognize the contributions of public health and highlight opportunities for improving health in communities. As a department that exists to serve the public and help improve Green County, we want community members to be aware of the programs we offer and the work we’re doing to improve health.
Our department has five program categories; communicable disease control, chronic disease and injury prevention, maternal, child, and family health, environmental health, and access to and linkage to clinical care. Green County Public Health has something to offer almost every community member, no matter where they’re at in life. Our communicable disease control program focuses on preventing the spread of diseases like influenza, salmonella, and tuberculosis (TB). We do this by offering vaccinations, following up with people who test positive for food-borne illnesses, and working with organizations that have an outbreak of a certain disease. Through our chronic disease and injury prevention program, we provide free medication lock boxes to help prevent medications from being misused, offer car seat safety checks, and work with local schools to provide vaping prevention education. The maternal, child, and family health program includes services like the Women, Infants & Children (WIC) supplemental nutrition program, breastfeeding education and support, and Prenatal Care Coordination (PNCC). Our environmental health program helps ensure people’s homes and our communities are safe, healthy places to live. We offer private well water and radon test kits, we test small public water systems like golf courses, campgrounds, and wineries, and we work with families whose children have elevated lead levels to identify lead hazards and prevent further exposure to lead. Our programs help people access and get connected to clinical care, such as offering blood pressure checks, providing referrals to healthcare services, and updating and sharing the Green County Community Resource Guide. This is just an overview of some of the services we have to offer, to learn more about all of our services, visit our website: www.gcpublichealth.org.
In addition to offering services directly to community members, our staff also works on improving health issues facing the whole community. In 2024, our department worked with other organizations in Green County to complete a community health assessment to understand better the health issues facing the community. The assessment process included getting input from many people across the county through an online survey and in-person community conversations. After the assessment, we worked with partner organizations to identify the most significant health challenges that came up: mental health and housing. We worked together to create a plan to improve mental health and housing in Green County, which we’ll work on for the next three years. To learn more about this assessment process and the work being done, visit the Green County Healthy Community Coalition website: www.greencohcc.org. Our team members at Green County Public Health are also part of work groups and committees focused on several topics, including breastfeeding, tobacco prevention, elderly abuse prevention, water quality, ending human trafficking, childhood injury prevention, youth health, binge drinking prevention, immunizations, oral health, and so many more.
Many organizations are working to improve public health, not only public health departments like Green County Public Health. Public health encompasses all of the programs, services, infrastructure, policies, and work being done to keep people safe and healthy at home, in school, at work, and in their community. For example, everything from stop signs to parks to indoor smoking restrictions is public health. As these examples show, many factors influence people’s health, not only diet, exercise, and personal habits. People’s behaviors are just one aspect of several factors that impact a person’s health. Social and economic factors like employment, education, and social connectedness, as well as a person’s access to healthcare and the quality of that healthcare, are actually more influential to a person’s health than individual behaviors.
Our department wants to thank all the organizations and individuals in Green County who are helping make our community a safer and healthier place to live, work, and play. We are fortunate to work with many wonderful people across Green County to improve the community’s health. We encourage you to thank a person or organization in your community who you know is working towards improving public health.
— Bridget Zimmerman is the Public Health Educator for the Green County Public Health Department and can be reached at bzimmerman@greencountywi.org or 608-328-9509.
