Are You Up-to-Date on Immunizations?

Staying up-to-date on immunizations protects our populations from serious communicable diseases. JCPH reminds parents, childcare and healthcare providers of the importance of preventing once common childhood diseases through vaccination. While many preventable disease levels are at or near record lows, there are still many under-immunized children, leaving the potential for outbreaks of disease. Many adolescents and adults are under-immunized as well, missing opportunities to protect themselves against diseases such as Hepatitis B, influenza, bacterial meningitis and pneumococcal disease. This is a good time to go over your immunization records and be sure everyone in your family is up to date.

JCPH has partnered with the Jeffco Public Schools to increase the number of children up to date on immunizations. JCPH has extended hours thru June 2012 to get kids caught up for the upcoming school year.  Call 303-232-6301 to make an appointment!


For a complete list of recommended vaccines, please visit: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/schedules/child-schedule.htm

• Jefferson County Public Health offers Immunizations at our Arvada and Lakewood locations, please call to make an appointment: 303-232-6301 or visit: www.health.jeffco.us
• Immunize for Good Colorado: www.immunizeforgood.com/

For more information and to take the What Vaccines Do You Need Quiz, visit:  http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/default.htm 

Calling all Moms! This May, Make a Connection with Public Health

May is a perfect month for honoring mothers and motherhood. Mother’s Day is May 13, 2012. Jefferson County Public Health offers a wide range of services to help mothers and their babies get off to a healthy start. Whether you are pregnant, have a newborn, toddler or perhaps several young children, connecting with public health programs and services can benefit your family’s health. The following programs are available to Jefferson County mothers and their children. 

Healthy Babies, Healthy Moms

•  The Health Care Access Program assists people with accessing health care. Services include assistance with Medicaid application process and documentation; pregnancy tests and referrals to prenatal providers; and, information and referrals to appropriate JCPH programs. Call 303-239-7120 or 7144 or 7042. 

• JCPH Resource Public Health Nurse can help with identifying and accessing community health care services. The Resource Nurse refers clients to various community services, provides patient education and assists with linking clients to appropriate healthcare, please call 303-239-7029.
  

·         Family Planning
Nearly four out of every 10 babies born in Colorado are the result of unintended pregnancy. Unintended pregnancy has prenatal and perinatal risks, risks for children, and risks for parents. JCPH’s Family Planning Program offers abstinence education as well as birth control for sexually active men and women. Learn more about options available and help to make every pregnancy in Jefferson County a planned pregnancy. 

• NFP Partners for Healthy Families
  Are you ready for Mother’s Day? It is just around the corner on May 13^th.  The Boppy Company (based in Golden, CO) is once again partnering with NFP to donate 500 Boppy® pillows to our NFP moms. This gift will total more than $20,000. Boppy plans to donate Boppy pillows to the following NFP agencies: Care Ring (Charlotte, NC), Guilford Child Development (Greensboro, NC), County of San Diego-East and South Public Health Centers (San Diego, CA) and Jefferson County Public Health (Lakewood, CO).

• Many Jefferson County, first-time mothers could use the support and resources offered by a relationship with a public health nurse. Nurse Family Partnership Partners for Healthy Families offers free prenatal and early childhood nurse home visitations program for first time mothers who meet financial guidelines. Please call 303-239-7074.

• Prenatal Plus Program
  The JCPH Prenatal Plus Program is a special case management program for pregnant women on Medicaid who may be at risk for negative maternal and infant health outcomes. Women are empowered to make lifestyle changes to positively impact their pregnancies and result in healthy babies.  They have access to a case manager, registered dietician, and mental health professional during home or office visits throughout their pregnancy and up to 2 months after their baby is born. Prenatal Plus services are in addition to a woman’s regular prenatal care.  Please call 303-232-6301.
  
  
• Nurture with Nutrition
  JCPH Nutrition Services offers a wide array of services aimed at improving the nutrition status of Jefferson Count’s mothers and infants. WIC helps mothers make infant feeding choices and provides breastfeeding support, children's growth checkups and referrals to other health services. WIC (Women, Infants and Children) nutrition education, counseling and supplemental food program provides nutrition education and food vouchers to women and children ages 5 and under who meet financial guidelines. Please call 303-239-7143 in Lakewood or 303-275-7510 in Arvada.

• Nutrition Services - Children with Special Needs. The Nutrition Services for Children with Special Needs Program, provides individualized, specialized care to assist you and your child with feeding and growth issues. Judy Fowler, RD, CNSD, Community Nutritionist, 303-239-7146 or jfowler@jeffco.us

• Health Care Program for Children with Special NeedsThe Health Care Program for Children and Youth with Special Needs (HCP) provides help to children with special health needs, their families and the service providers who work with them.  Professionals and families work together as a team to improve the outcome for children. HCP helps the families of children with, or at risk for, such conditions as asthma, autism, cancer, cerebral palsy, cleft palate, cystic fibrosis, developmental disabilities, diabetes, kidney disease, loss of hearing or sight, sickle cell anemia, TBI, and more. If you have questions about whether your child or a child you may know might qualify, please call 303-239-7006.

Infant Immunization Week is April 23-30, 2012 . . . Are Your Children Up-to-Date?

To help facilitate communication between health-care providers and parents about vaccines, vaccine safety, and vaccine-preventable diseases, CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Family Physicians have developed a series of educational materials called Provider Resources for Vaccine Conversations with Parents. Check it out.
Jefferson County Public Health offers Immunizations at our Arvada andLakewood locations.  Please call 303-232-6301 or 303-239-7033 to schedule an appointment.

Today is Earth Day

The earth is like our body. We need to eat right and exercise – take care of our bodies. Likewise we need to respect and take care of the earth. Everyone has a right to a clean and healthy environment regardless of race ethnicity or socio-economic status. 



Our planet, our home is being neglected. Climate change continues unabated. It seems there's a new ecological disaster happening almost daily. This Earth Day it's time to mobilize the planet from the ground up to send a message that the Earth won't wait! Do a good deed for the earth today on Earth Day and everyday.

Earth Day Website
JCPH Recycling Resources

Get ACTIVE in April

Spring is officially here and Jefferson County Public Health encourages everyone to make the most of it. Get outside and get active. Physical activity can help improve your health, make a commitment to move more this April! Check out the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Physical Activity Guidelines and the national “Let’s Move” campaign.

It’s Turkey Time . . . Prevent Foodborne Illness this Holiday Season

Whether you are cooking for yourself, your family or a whole bunch of people, it is important to be aware of safety issues when thawing, preparing, stuffing and cooking your turkey. A few simple steps can help keep foodborne illness off the menu this Thanksgiving.
Safe Thawing -Thawing turkeys must be kept out of the "danger zone" temperature (between 40 and 140°F) — this is the temperature range where foodborne bacteria multiply rapidly. See"Safe Methods for Thawing;" (Spanish)
Safe Preparation-Bacteria present on raw poultry can contaminate your hands, utensils, and work surfaces as you prepare the turkey. After working with raw poultry, always wash your hands, utensils, and work surfaces before they touch other foods.
Safe Stuffing-Bacteria can survive in stuffing that has not reached 165°F, possibly resulting in foodborne illness. Follow these steps to safely prepare, cook, remove, and refrigerate stuffing; Spanish language instructions.
Safe Cooking-Set the oven temperature no lower than 325°F and be sure the turkey is completely thawed. Cooking times will vary. The food thermometer must reach a safe minimum internal temperature of 165°F. For more information on safe internal temperatures, visit FoodSafety.gov's Safe Minimum Cooking Temperatures

• Download JCPH turkey time handout
• View JCPH Food Safety page

What's In Your Family's 72 Hour Emergency Kit?

Get Ready, Be Prepared! As a full-time working mom of three wonderful kidlets, I was pretty sure I had the Get Ready concept down pretty well. Logistics and being prepared are my life! Yet, recently when I walked in to my office at Jefferson County Public Health and glanced down at the stack of “Get Ready” posters and piles of “How to make a 72 hour kit” flyers on the floor, I stopped and questioned. Am I REALLY ready? Do I have what I need to keep my house functioning for 72 hours? Yes, I can get our family of five packed for a week’s vacation. I know to bring along all of those important snacks, and stuffed animal friends, and books, and medicines. I know to plan ahead, but I had several days to make sure I had all of those items packed and ready for our vacation. In an emergency, I won’t have that luxury of time, I won’t have days to plan ahead. I will need all of those things immediately, in a box ready to go. The phrase that summed up my pondering was, Do I have a stash of supplies ready to go on a moment’s notice filled with all those things we absolutely cannot live without?


And the answer was no, so I am working on my 72 Emergency Kit, and I urge you to do the same. Be Prepared…what does that mean? Prepared for what...everything? What a daunting task would be! But when we look at it from the “what can we not live without” frame of mind, it makes it a little bit easier to tackle. Thus, as an emergency response planner, I made it my New Year’s mission to Get Ready and Be Prepared! On a tight budget, I am still in the Get Ready phase, but I know that soon I will Be Prepared.

To start with, there are the stock lists available on various emergency preparedness web sites including FEMA’s of what everyone should have on hand to survive for 72 hours on their own and ideally for up to 2 weeks without leaving your home. But when I looked at the list I thought, never in a million years will my children eat tuna fish for 3 days. I need to customize! We are a tightly budgeted household so I made it a point to look for coupons and combine those with sales to stock my newly purchased Rubbermaid tub with things that I knew my children would actually eat and need for a three day shelter at home, or in kids terms a “stay-cation”.

What did I end up with? Lots of cereal, canned fruit packed in juice that could serve as a drink, granola bars that they like, peanut butter and crackers, fruit snacks, water flavoring packets, flashlights (3 of them so there would be no arguing over who had the flashlight and who didn’t) and batteries, and a myriad of other things (including the “melty medicine” for the youngest kidlet as he refuses any type of liquid medicine). Does my box look like the list that I have plastered all over my office, not exactly, but it is a work in progress and contains items that will keep my family functioning and my kids happy. Because face it, when the kids are whiny, mama is not a happy camper. By continuing to stock my box with items I know they like and our family will need, I am slowly taking one less stressor out of what will surely be a most stressful situation. Do I feel ready for 72 hours yet? Not quite, but I will get there and finally Be Prepared!

Oh, and one other item that has made it to the box….a back up “yellow and blue cold blankie”…..because no blankie would not be a pretty situation!