News and Information from Your Community Health Professionals
Vaccinate on Time to Prevent Disease!
Parents agree feeding and sleep schedules are important to help keep their children healthy. The same goes for childhood immunizations. Vaccinating children on time is the best way to protect them from 14 serious and potentially deadly diseases before their second birthday. “The recommended immunization schedule [...]
We Need Nurses to Protect Children with Immunization
Parents consider healthcare professionals one of the most trusted sources for answering questions and addressing concerns about their child’s health. A recent survey on parents’ attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors regarding vaccines for young children – including vaccine safety and trust – found 8 out of 10 [...]
Protect Your Preteens Today from HPV Cancers Tomorrow
HPV vaccination is recommended for preteen girls and boys at age 11 to 12. If your son or daughter hasn’t started or finished the HPV vaccine series yet, it’s not too late! Now is a good time to ask their doctor or nurse about vaccines for [...]
Water You Talking About?
Summer is officially here, and we’re all looking for ways to quench our thirst and beat the heat. While old-fashioned H2O is a tried-and-true hydration method, sometimes you want something a little bit more exciting! Now that we are more aware of the health consequences of [...]
What is a Juul?
You are probably familiar with cigarettes and tobacco dip. It’s been around for a quite a while. You might have even recently heard of electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes, but do you know what JUUL is? No fret, I hadn’t heard of JUUL or how widespread it [...]
Inside the Darkside
Most people know that tobacco causes a variety of health problems and that nicotine, the addictive chemical found in cigarettes, is at the root of many of these health problems. However, this wasn’t always public knowledge. Researchers were hired by tobacco companies to study nicotine and [...]
Protect Your Eyes This Summer!
With longer days and warmer weather, the summer months beckon us outside to enjoy picnics, pools, and parks. Most people know to protect their skin from the sun’s damaging rays by slathering on the sunscreen. Many may not realize the same UV radiation can also harm the eyes [...]
What is a CHIP? Why is it Important?
A Community Health Improvement Plan, or CHIP, is a long-term, systematic effort to address public health problems on the basis of the results of community health assessment (CHA) activities and the community health improvement process. Community Health Assessments (CHA) The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) describes [...]
Conference Survival Tips
Are you going to a multiple-day conference soon? Rebecca Thomas recently attended the Florida Rural Health Association’s Annual Educational Summit. Here are her conference survival tips, especially useful if you’re an exhibitor at one of our events: A couple months ago, I attended the Florida Rural [...]
Homelessness and Tobacco Use
April 15-21 is National Volunteer Week. To kick things off, we are highlighting a program in the community that SRAHEC started in 2015 to help the homeless and near-homeless in Gainesville quit tobacco. The transient nature of homelessness makes it challenging to get a good estimate [...]
#NPHW18: Ensuring the Right to Health
“Ensuring the Right to Health” is the theme of the final day of National Public Health Week. This topic falls under the mission of Suwannee River AHEC “to promote and provide access to quality health connections in our community.” American Public Health Association has identified three [...]
#NPHW18: Environmental Health
Today is Day 3 of National Public Health Week. Today’s theme is environmental health. Air pollution contributes to thousands of premature births and costs billions of dollars. Asthma, lead poisoning, and mercury levels are the environmental health issues we often think of as affecting quality of [...]
National Nutrition Month: Meatless Mondays
Since the movement began in the U.S. in 2003, Meatless Mondays have become a healthy habit for people living in over 40 countries, from Slovakia to South Africa. The Monday Campaigns’ initiative for temporary vegetarianism initially started with the goal of reducing Americans’ saturated fat intake [...]
#NPHW18: Behavioral Health
National Public Health Week 2018 is underway. Today’s focus is Behavioral Health, a dimension of health that Suwannee River AHEC is well versed in. American Public Health Association’s emphasis on behavioral health revolves around the prominent opioid epidemic. Opioid addiction is killing thousands of Americans each [...]
Why Does My Son Need the HPV Vaccine?
I often get the question, “Why does my son need the HPV vaccine? He doesn’t have a cervix.” I smile and respond, “Well he can spread the virus to his future partner, and he can also get HPV-related anal, penile and throat cancers.” Many times, this [...]
National Nutrition Month: MyPlate 101
If you’re looking to improve the quality of your diet, using MyPlate as a guide is a great place to start. MyPlate recommends that your diet be comprised of 50% fruits and vegetables, 50% grains and lean protein, plus some low-fat dairy and limited added fats/sugars. [...]
Kick Butts Day 2018
March 21st is Kick Butts Day, an awareness day created by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. Today is a national day of activism aimed at empowering young people to “stand up, speak out, and seize control against Big Tobacco”. Events organized today seek to [...]
National Nutrition Month: Feeding the Family
In a world filled with Happy Meals and SpongeBob-shaped fruit snacks, it can be challenging to get kids to eat healthy. Habits that kids learn during childhood, however, can make a lasting difference for their weight and overall health in adulthood. Use these 10 tips to [...]
National Nutrition Month: #MealPrepSunday
Meal preparation refers to the habit of proactively planning, cooking, and packaging food to be eaten over a specified period of time (usually 3 – 7 days). Although it may seem like a fad popularized by fitness gurus on Instagram, #mealprep is actually a tried and [...]
Knock Out HPV!
So, I am a 47 year old woman and I have had an STD! BAM!! POW!! Saying that out loud makes me feel like I’m a villain in the old Batman show. Then I remember that an estimated 80% of the adult population in this country [...]
National Eating Disorder Awareness Week
Today marks the final day of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. This year’s theme, Let’s Get Real, aims to highlight stories we don’t typically hear in discussions of eating disorders. Often in media, we see a very one-dimensional portrayal of eating disorders: a frail teenage white [...]
Healthy Relationships: Intimate Partner Violence
We have finally reached the end of February, and our Healthy Relationships blog series is coming to a close. We wanted to touch on a more serious topic for our final installment: intimate partner violence. Sometimes we think we’re in a healthy relationship when we’re really [...]
Healthy Relationships: Swiping Safely
If you’re one of the 49 million Americans seeking love online, you’ve probably considered the many ways that a first meeting can go wrong. No one wants to end up with a date who looks nothing like their profile picture or at a bar where you [...]
Healthy Relationships: Communication
Whether you’re single, dating, or married, Valentine’s Day is a (cheesy) reminder of the importance of relationships in our lives. What better way to celebrate than to hone your healthy communication skills? Relationship expert Dr. John Gottman is famous for predicting whether a couple will get [...]
FRHA 2018: Larry Mullins is Leading in Uncertain Times
Florida Rural Health Association’s Annual Educational Summit is fast approaching! The annual summit, now in its 24th year, has always been dedicated to raising awareness of the topics and issues faced by rural health professionals. This year’s focus is Healthcare, Politics, and Funding in Uncertain Times. [...]