Public Health Services: Keeping Us All Healthy!
The first week in April has been officially designated as National Public Health Week. Public health services, such as childhood vaccination programs and screening tests, play pivotal roles in providing our families and ourselves with critical treatment that otherwise might not be available.
For this reason, I have consistently supported measures during my time in the U.S. Congress that reauthorize and improve upon existing programs that serve American families, as well as create new initiatives that go even further in keeping our loved ones healthy. As a steering committee member of the Rural Health Care Caucus, I understand that these programs are heavily relied upon by those living in underserved areas. I am pleased that southeastern North Carolina will receive over $1.2 million for four of its community health centers. These funds will expand the type of care offered and provide access to citizens who rely on the services provided by Robeson Health Care, Goshen Medical Center, Stedman Wade Health, and the New Hanover Community Health Center.
In addition, my colleagues and I in the U.S. House just recently passed the following public health service measures in observance and support of National Public Health Week. First, I was pleased to support a bill which reauthorizes and improves the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program which was designed to identify and help infants with hearing loss. Second, I also supported the “Wakefield Act,” a bill which improves the Emergency Medical Services for Children program that has consistently delivered quality emergency services for children needing trauma or critical care. Our nation’s emergency rooms see 30 million visits each year by children and teens. For this reason, passage of this bill is critical as it enhances an existing emergency care program that has caused injury-related deaths to drop by 40 percent over the past 20 years.
Third, I was pleased to support the Dextromethorphan Distribution Act, also known as the cough syrup bill. This measure will crack down on the bulk sale of dextromethorphan, an ingredient of cough syrup that kids are abusing to get high. Unfortunately, studies have shown that teenagers are obtaining unfinished dextromethorphan to get high in increasing numbers. This bill provides parents with the confidence that the medicinal therapies their children are exposed to are adequately monitored, and supplied in a manageable and traceable manner.
Finally, the U.S. House passed, and I supported, a resolution that designates the month of March as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. It is of critical importance that the public become better educated about the need for early detection and screening for colorectal cancer. Public health service programs provide specifically for this type of test. Many national and community organizations have made it their mission to educate the public about this disease and are to be commended for promoting colorectal cancer awareness and encouraging health care providers to join the collective effort to combat colon cancer.
The U.S. Congress must continue to keep the maintenance and support of public health service programs at the very top of its agenda so America’s families are able to receive the quality medical and preventative care they need to live long, healthy and rewarding lives.
