By Adewale Troutman, MD, MPH
You may notice a new name for the Louisville Health Department on bus shelters and in radio ads as part of our regular social marketing campaigns to motivate people to quit smoking, or to engage in more physical activity, or to be aware of the signs of a heart attack. You may also see the name on our new mobile unit as it comes to your neighborhood.
What was formerly known as the Louisville Metro Health Department is now known as the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness.
So what's the big deal — a few more syllables, a few more words? Maybe so, but words are important and two new words in our name pack a lot of meaning, telling much about the direction we will be taking in the years ahead. Those two added words are “ wellness” and “public .” Wellness incorporates the World Health Organization's notion of health: The development and maintenance of a positive state of health that is physical, psychological, social, and spiritual and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Wellness recognizes that good health is a balance of mind, body and spirit in individuals, populations and communities.
If one understands that health is not just an absence of disease or infirmity, but also a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, then the mission of our department, while continuing to protect the public from contagious disease and environmental hazards, must also be to impact the social and economic factors that can adversely affect our lives.
If we are really about the business of health, then we must be about the business of improving neighborhoods, of impacting families, and of giving many of our children better educational and economic opportunities than their parents had. We must be about affecting the “upstream” factors that lead to poor health in high-risk, high-need communities.
It is precisely for this reason that Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson established the Center for Health Equity within the Department of Public Health and Wellness last June. The center is working with neighborhood leaders to plan community improvements. It is working with families to approach nutrition in a holistic way and it will be working with government and business leaders to increase economic opportunities.
The American Heritage dictionary defines wellness as the “condition of good physical and mental health especially when maintained by proper diet, exercise, and habits.”
That idea of wellness fits perfectly into the concept behind the Mayor's Healthy Hometown Movement, our communitywide effort to motivate our citizens to increase their level of physical activity and to adopt healthier lifestyles. The Mayor's Healthy Hometown Movement strives to make a physically active lifestyle and good health habits the norm, rather than the exception, throughout our community.
Since the mayor and the Department of Public Health and Wellness launched the initiative a little more than two years ago, thousands of citizens have participated in biking, hiking and other events. Recent survey data indicates that people throughout our community may be engaging in more physical activity since the inception of the Movement.
Equally important are the changes to the physical environment we are seeing as part of the Mayor's Healthy Hometown Movement. You have probably noticed bike lanes being installed as part of street resurfacing projects in many parts of the community. Soon you will also be seeing “Mayor's Miles” painted on sidewalks to encourage people to get out and walk whenever possible.
The other word in the Health Department's new name is public. The word public recognizes that our department's work must be to improve the health and wellness of the entire community and that the interventions that it undertakes must be aimed at populations.
During the 20th Century, the lifespan of the average American increased by more than 30 years. One study has estimated that only five of these 30 years of added life can be attributed to improvements in treating the health of individuals.
The study attributes 25 additional years of life to such public health interventions as community-wide immunization campaigns, the inspection of public food sources, the fluoridation of municipal water supplies and the removal of public environmental hazards such as lead in gasoline.
When you have to take a little longer to pronounce Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness, please remember that the slightly longer name is communicating an important message.
The new name clearly outlines that this department is committed to removing barriers to good health, whether those barriers be infectious disease and environmental hazards or whether those barriers be social and economic factors that have plagued far too many of our citizens for far too long. The new name explains that the department will continue to impact the culture of our community by motivating citizens to take responsibility for their health and wellness.
The new name also says that the department will continue in the tradition of public health which has improved the lives of Americans through community interventions. These efforts have lead to the eradication of many infectious diseases and to longer and healthier lives for all of us.
