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The Health Department, required by the Public Health Code and Connecticut General Statutes with the “preservation of health and safety,” is concerned with:
- Environmental health, health promotion and education of communicable diseases.
- Surveillance and prevention.
- Screening and immunization.
The role of public health is to prevent illness and promote health, a goal that all of us would want as much as we value fire or police protection. It's just common sense that keeping people healthy is preferable to having to cure them after they get sick. Most of our work is behind the scenes: inspecting restaurants, testing the bathing waters at public beaches and pools, following up on infectious diseases to prevent their spread, promoting and offering timely immunizations, monitoring and prevention of lead poisoning, inspecting day care centers and schools, and a wide variety of other efforts to limit or prevent disease.
In environmental health, the department addressed the West Nile virus problem by contracting to have a mosquito-reduction program administered throughout the city. The department monitors and follows up reportable diseases as required by the state Department of Health Services to protect the public from the spread of communicable diseases through contacts at restaurants or day care centers.
In health promotion and education,the department works with the Visiting Nurse Association, a Well-Child Conference cares for children, offers health physicals for older children and immunized children at the City Hall clinic. The department worked with the Hill Health Center to provide food assistance to some families with pregnant women and/or children up to age 5 through the nutrition-based Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Food Program.
The department’s two nurses conducted a series of preventative and clinical programs:
- A free, semimonthly Childhood Immunization Clinic.
- A free Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic with a confidential hot line (932-4000).
- Testing and screening programs for blood pressure, cholesterol, tuberculosis, diabetes and cardiovascular health.
Health Department sanitarians:
- Test the water at public pools and beaches.
- Inspect restaurant and food service facilities.
- Inspect and approve septic system and well permits.
Mission Statement
The mission of the West Haven Department of Public Health is in great part our mandate to enforce the Public Health Code of the state of Connecticut and the Code and Ordinances of the city of West Haven. Therefore we perform a range of functions, such as the licensure and inspection of food establishments, public swimming pools and designated bathing areas, as well as the follow up of contagious and preventable diseases, including lead poisoning, sexually transmitted illnesses, tuberculosis and others.
We protect the public health by quietly -- and often confidentially -- doing our various jobs as nurses, sanitarians and health educators. The public, in fact, may not often know we are there because when we succeed in our work, nothing bad happens. We prevent food poisoning, and people enjoy eating out or at festivals; they drink the water or swim at the beach and all is well. We are also actively preparing for emergencies that include the arrival of illnesses new to our area, such as West Nile virus, SARS or now the potential for avian influenza.
Our public health preparedness volunteers have been practicing on drills for everything from administering smallpox vaccinations to dispensing antibiotics from the Strategic National Stockpile. We are also actively involved in protecting against tobacco’s harms while promoting healthier addictions, such as exercise and good eating.
All of our mandates are found in the nearly 2,000-page Healthy People 2010, which has dozens of goals in 25 program areas that we would like to address and improve upon. With such a huge mission as that, we obviously need everyone to do their part. So we welcome you to join us in health and do whatever you can to bring health into your lives and that of those near and dear to you. We will help with educational materials and support to make West Haven a healthy haven for all.
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