Community Health Services

Community Health Services provided through local health departments benefit all Virginians as well as the millions who visit our state each year. Such services include communicable disease prevention and control, immunizations, assuring the safety of food served in public establishments and individual drinking water supplies, maintaining vital records for deaths that occur in Virginia and health promotion.

VDH Staff Volunteer to Assist Hurricane Recovery
Efforts in Florida
On September 8, 2004, 27 public health personnel from Virginia boarded planes and headed to Florida to help residents impacted by Hurricanes Charlie and Frances. The nurses, outreach workers and support personnel spent six days working 12 hour shifts at a community shelter in Indian River County, Florida.

The shelter housed more than 200 elderly residents and people with special medical needs. The Virginia team not only provided direct medical care, but also worked hard to provide the residents with proper hygiene and emotional support. They washed several hundred loads of laundry and helped some of the older residents get showers.

“In public health, the community is our patient and, in this case, the shelter became our community,” said Pat Winter, Public Health Nurse Manager for the Western Tidewater Health District. “We were able to use our public health skills to protect health and prevent disease within the shelter community.”

The team was composed of local public health personnel from the Alexandria, Chesterfield, Fairfax, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, and Western Tidewater Health Districts.

“This is a great example of public health as a team sport,” said Jeff Lake, Deputy Commissioner for Community Health Services. Mr. Lake says the Deputy Secretary of Health in Florida was amazed how quickly Virginia responded, especially over the Labor Day weekend and was impressed with the quality and dedication of Virginia’s volunteers.