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Men’s Health Matters At Home and in Washington
By Rachelle Bachran
WASHINGTON – Congressional leaders and their staffers are setting a healthy example by kicking off a week-long celebration of national Men’s Health Week, June 11-17, with health screenings on Capitol Hill. The three-day Congressional screening illustrates how simple, pain-free diagnostic tests can save lives, whether you’re a senator or a Copper Country resident.
National Men’s Health Week, celebrated each year during the week leading up to and including Father’s Day, sponsors activities in communities across the country, bringing together corporations, government agencies, religious and fraternal organizations, as well as others committed to the prevention and treatment of men’s health issues. Hundreds of groups across the country host events during June to celebrate the week and help ensure a healthier future for our nation.
For the past eight years, men’s health screenings have been offered on Capitol Hill with more than 700-900 members, staffers and employees participating each year. “We’re pleased that Congress continues to take such an active role in emphasizing men’s health,” said Scott Williams, Director of Professional Relations and Public Policy for the advocacy group Men’s Health Network.
“The purpose of National Men’s Health Week is to heighten awareness of health problems and encourage early detection and treatment of disease among men and boys,” said Williams. “The support of Congress and Men’s Health Week participants nationwide has enabled us to raise awareness of men’s health issues in communities across the country. You can learn more by going to www.menshealthweek.org.”
Recognizing that men are less likely to schedule annual screenings and physicals to discuss their health with their doctor, Men’s Health Network has launched a new website, Check Mens Facts, which explores a variety of men’s health conditions, including those which can cause erectile dysfunction (ED). These conditions include diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Information on the conditions, things to discuss with your doctor and a survey of physicians and patients are all included in the website as well as other information to help understand the co-morbidity of ED.
The following Michigan health statistics reflect the scope of some men’s health issues here in our state:
- Women live over 5 years longer than men
- This year 8,540 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed among men in Michigan
- 1,110 men will die from prostate cancer this year
- Men also tend to die younger than women from heart disease, cancer and other causes
What does this mean for spouses and families? In Michigan, among women married to men the same age as themselves, almost 15% will be widows as they enter retirement (ages 65-69). It has been said that recognizing and preventing men’s health problems is not just a man’s issue. Because of its impact on wives, mother, daughters, and sister, men’s health is truly a family issue. Additionally, men’s health is an issue for employers who lose productive employees and pay the cost of their medical care, as well as for society, which absorbs the enormous cost of premature death and disability.
Please join Western Upper Peninsula Health Department along with Men’s Health Network celebrating this week of June 11-17, including Father’s Day, by setting up an appointment to visit your physician. After all, just as you take in the car for an oil change or the 25,000 mile checkup, men also need to visit the doctor’s office to make sure everything is running smoothly.
For more information, or to pick up a complimentary brochure entitled “Heath Facts For Men,” contact Rachelle A. Bachran at Western Upper Peninsula Health Department, 906-482-7382 ext. 189.
Western U.P. District Health Department provides public health services to residents in Houghton, Keweenaw, Baraga, Ontonagon, and Gogebic counties. In addition, its Superior Home Health and Hospice Division provides skilled home nursing and hospice services in the five counties. Western U.P. District Health Department has offices in Hancock, L’Anse, Ontonagon and Bessemer.
Superior Home Nursing & Hospice
is now
Superior Home Health & Hospice
Western Upper Peninsula District Health Department announces that it has changed the name of its home care division to Superior Home Health and Hospice, said Don B. Keith, Chairman of the Board of Health. “Superior Home Health and Hospice was formally known as Superior Home Nursing and Hospice”, said Keith. “The new name better represents the full scope of work we do today.” Superior Home Health and Hospice is the home care unit of Western U. P. District Health Department, the five-county regional public health agency.
Barb Auten, RN, BSN, Director of Superior Home Health and Hospice, said that the change is a small one, but it is significant. “The services that we provide at Superior Home Health and Hospice are so much broader and deeper than skilled nursing care,” said Auten. “We continually add new professional levels, staying abreast of progress in the home care world, to meet our mission of providing our clients with the highest quality, most technical care, the speediest recovery, and the most compassionate hospice practice.”
“Superior Home Health and Hospice provides skilled home nursing and aide care services, and it provides all rehabilitation therapies, including physical, occupational, speech language pathology and medical social work,” said Connie Penfold, Rehab Manager. “Superior Home Health and Hospice has one of the largest home centered therapy teams in the U.P., and it specializes in geriatric care, wound care, and lymphedema therapy.”
Superior Home Health and Hospice also offers its clients the special expertise in pediatric nursing, enterostomal care, I.V. infusion therapy, and it runs regular blood pressure and foot care clinics in all locations.
In existence for more than 70 years, Superior Home Health and Hospice was among the first agencies certified by Medicare in 1966. It is fully accredited by CHAP and provides home health and hospice services in Houghton, Keweenaw, Ontonagon, Baraga and Gogebic counties from offices in Hancock, Ontonagon, L’Anse and Bessemer.
Clean Air Is Everyone’s Right
By Guy St. Germain, Health Officer/Administrator
Over the past six months, Western U.P. District Health Department, the public health agency for Houghton, Baraga, Keweenaw, Ontonagon, and Gogebic counties, has been working to implement a Clean Indoor Air Regulation in our area. This proposal has been welcomed by most citizens, but it has also drawn questions from some. This article may answer those questions.
This initiative is designed to remove a toxic hazard from the air we breathe inside workplaces and public buildings. Our local regulation will not apply to bars, restaurants or rooms in motels. This is by state law. It is not a smoking ban. By simply requiring that smoking occur outdoors, it protects employees and customers from secondhand smoke, but it does not prevent those who choose to smoke from doing so.
This is neither unique or unprecedented; clean indoor air policies exist in a majority of states – and in 20 counties in Michigan. This movement is occurring now because medical science has recently established that breathing secondhand smoke is as hazardous to health, and in the same ways, as direct smoking. Notably, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a comprehensive report in June 2006 which recommended that all citizens should be protected from secondhand smoke.
Support for smoke-free workplaces is widespread. In a 2005 poll, only 23 percent of Michigan voters opposed smoke-free workplace laws. And, both peer-reviewed studies and real-world experience shows that smoke-free laws do not have an adverse economic impact on the business community.
Still, some people ask, does government go too far when it regulates smoking in businesses?
We should remember that since the early 20th century, America has accepted that regulation is necessary to secure basic employment rights, including worker’s rights to be protected from pollutants and unsafe conditions. Today, few disagree that it is appropriate for government to establish a safe baseline regarding working conditions for all businesses, public and private.
Our clean indoor air regulation is just such a basic workplace protection. Knowing what science has now established about the indoor smoke hazard, we believe it is clear that government should step forward and set a standard.
Under this regulation, smokers will retain their right to smoke, but not to expose others to deadly secondhand smoke. People have many rights, but they never have a right to harm others.
Similarly, business owners have many rights. But, businesses also have responsibilities to their employees. Their right to operate does not include a right to maintain smoking policies which harm others.
The health department has always been concerned with the impact of its codes on our local businesses. That is why this regulation is without cost to businesses. Workplaces must only post a simple sign, and ask employees who smoke to step outside. With no cost of implementation, and no compliance burdens, this regulation is minimalist government at its best.
We also hear this: if society regulates indoor smoking, then all manner of things people do and enjoy are going to be regulated next. But that notion goes to the extreme. All proposals are not equivalent, and all regulations are not bad ones. It’s the role of county officials to discern between appropriate health protections and those which could be burdensome or meddling. We applaud those counties in Michigan, including Baraga and Houghton, which have taken a stand for sensible and decent policy regarding indoor air.
We all believe in limited government. But that should not be confused with no government. The Western U.P. Clean Indoor Air Regulation is both good science and good government.