National Public Health Week - April 6-12, 2009

Since 1995, when the first full week of April was declared as National Public Health Week (NPHW), communities across the country have celebrated NPHW to recognize the contributions of public health and highlight issues that are important to improving the public’s health.

The American Public Health Association (APHA) serves as the organizer of NPHW and develops a national campaign to educate the public, policy-makers and practitioners about issues related to that year’s theme. APHA creates comprehensive planning, organizing and outreach materials that can be used during and after the week to raise awareness.

The Idaho Public Health Association will help promote the theme, Building the Foundation for a Healthy America, by highlighting the many faces of public health. In addition, IPHA and the Governor's Office will proclaim Wednesday, April 8, 2009 Idaho Public Health Day in honor of public health professionals throughout the state. Join us and Lt. Governor Brad Little at 1:00 PM in Capitol Park, Boise for a reading/signing of the proclamation and a walking lunch downtown! Wear comfortable shoes as we "walk our talk" for healthy lifestyle choices.

If you are unable to attend Wednesday's event, be sure to check out our blog for essays on the faces of public health, written by IPHA board members to highlight different areas of public health practice. We'll post a new one each day of public health week. Monday's blog is written by Vivian Lockary, IPHA president-elect, on the topic of Public Health Surveillance.

Idaho State University "Faces of Public Health" online program starts this week!

Learn about the diversity of the public health workforce.

Use this link to view presentations and videos prepared by public health professionals, with a different topic for each day of public health week. If you are not a student or faculty members with an ISU Moodle account, you will need to log in the first time you visit the site and establish a password.

Scroll to the bottom of the list of programs, where you will see a link at the bottom for Public Health Week. You’ll need to use Firefox or Safari as your browser (downloadable for free). Unfortunately, we discovered that Internet Explorer has problems with picking up the videos. Thanks to Galen Louis, Ph.D. for organizing this education program!