HOMER RICE - ADMINISTRATOR FOR LEON COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT

My entire professional life has been spent in the field of Public Health.  When I say that to my friends, they don’t know what it means.  Even though Public Health is all around us, it goes unnoticed until a crisis arises.  It is the “invisible profession”.  When I started in Public Health in 1979, I have to admit I didn’t know what it was either.  I had just graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and needed a job.  I saw an opening in Sarasota County for a Sanitarian so I applied for the job and got it.  Since then, I have worked 30 years in Public Health, I am a Registered Sanitarian (RS), I have a Masters of Public Health Degree in Environmental and Occupational Health and am working on my dissertation for my PhD in Community and Family Health.  After all that, I think I can finally explain what Public Health is – it’s everything. 

When you got up this morning you probably washed your face and got a drink of water.  If you are a woman you may have taken a vitamin with Folic Acid in it.  You might have eaten a breakfast cereal that was fortified with vitamins.  You probably brushed your teeth with toothpaste that contained fluoride, or if you live in the City of Tallahassee you may know your water contains fluoride.  When you got into your car you probably fastened your seat belt.  If you took your children to school, you know they had to have certain immunizations to enter school.  Maybe you got a flu shot this year.  If you didn’t have time for breakfast at home, maybe you stopped someplace to eat.  Every thing you did so far is Public Health.  Public Health inspectors in different agencies made sure your water was safe to drink and your food was safe to eat.  Public Health advocates lobbied for fluoride in your water and your toothpaste to prevent cavities; they advocate for folic acid for women to prevent birth defects and they developed the policies that created seat belt laws.  Public Health nurses gave you your flu shots and childhood immunizations.  Public Health is a system of many doctors, nurses, agencies and staff that works together to assure the health of the community.

At the Leon County Health Department we work everyday to meet the needs of the residents of Leon County.  We have inspectors in Environmental Health that address food, water, wastewater, swimming pools and sanitation.  We work with Emergency Management to respond in disaster, making sure special needs clients are cared for in shelters and things return to normal as soon as possible.  We investigate disease outbreaks and treat communicable diseases, educating people to reduce the number of new cases of HIV and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD).  We have nurses and health aides in most schools to help you keep your children healthy.  We provide dental care to low income children and work with volunteer dentists to help adults with no access to care.  We run clinics for Family Planning, Communicable Disease, STD, Nutrition and WIC.  We contract with other providers to give access to primary medical care for low income residents.  We make drugs available for AIDS patients that prolong their lives.  We provide access to mammograms and cervical cancer screenings for low income women and follow through to see they are treated if needed.  We continually inform and educate on issues such as obesity, nutrition, diabetes, tobacco, and healthy lifestyles.  We work with multiple partners in the community to address issues such as low birth weight babies and infant mortality.  We do many other things, from providing access to mental health services to educating pregnant women on child birth and breastfeeding.  And everything we do is for YOU, the residents and visitors to Leon County.

To Your Health!