Community Health Services

Community Health Services is the statewide public health system encompassing the missions and operations of 35 health districts, which represent 119 local health departments in Virginia. Local health department services are provided to Virginia residents and those who visit Virginia each year by many dedicated physicians, public health nurses, environmental health specialists, business staff, epidemiologists and others. Community Health Services includes communicable disease prevention and control, nutrition, family planning, immunizations, restaurant inspections, regulation of on-site septic systems and ensuring safe drinking water at homes supplied by wells. Among the strengths of the Commonwealth’s local public health system is the joint state and local funding of local health departments. State and local governments contributed more than $163 million in FY 05 to support our local health departments.

A First Step To Good Health For Virginians In the 20th century, public health advances contributed substantially to the growing lifespan of Americans through efforts to provide clean drinking water, safe disposal of sewage and widespread use of immunizations. Today, the leading killers include chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and stroke. Late last year, Governor Warner launched his Healthy Virginians’ campaign, an initiative aimed at improving health and thereby reducing the burden of chronic diseases in our state.

“Local health departments are working on the front lines in their communities to help reverse the trends among the growing number of children who are developing risk factors that can lead to debilitating and costly chronic diseases” said Jeff Lake, Deputy Commissioner for Community Health Services.

An example of such projects is The Fruit and Veggie Fun Fair, a child-focused nutrition program undertaken through the Thomas Jefferson Health District as part of the district’s Childhood Obesity task Force. On Nov. 19, 2004, the Thomas Jefferson Health District conference room was buzzing with the energy of children ages 3 and 4 accompanied by 17 parents, babysitters, and other adult chaperones. This activity included age-appropriate activities for the children such as reading about, tasting and identifying colors of fruits and vegetables, as well as learning a song and dance with life-size fruit people.

“Anything we can do to promote healthy eating or snacking and increase physical activity among children will make an impact on the prevalence of childhood overweight,” said Barbara Yager, a nutritionist with Thomas Jefferson Health District.

A majority of the children participating in the Fruit and Veggie Fun Fair were also enrolled in the Bright Stars Program. This preschool program for at-risk 4 year olds in Albemarle County is funded by a grant from the Virginia Preschool Initiative through a partnership between the local department of social services, the local school division and various community agencies and organizations.