¡Salud y Saludos!

If you watch Univision 40, the Spanish-language network affiliate visible throughout the Triangle, you may catch a new series of commercials produced by the North Carolina Healthy Start Foundation.

The foundation’s Gloria Sanchez and with Kimberly Sauls of Women’s and Children’s Health Section of the Division of Public Health, spearheaded the campaign. Yours truly is one of the impromptu actors on these commercials. Their aim is to raise awareness about the value of a medical home.

Now while this may seem like a logical choice – that if you’re going to take your child to the doctor, you should make an effort to continue seeing the same doctor – circumstances sometimes get in the way of making this a reality. It is something that affects families of various ethnic backgrounds, including Hispanic households.

The reasons are many: sometimes there isn’t enough money to visit a private doctor, in which case a visit to a local community health clinic or even worse, an emergency room, may be the order of the day. Other times, a family may move and be inclined to see another doctor that perhaps lives closer to their new home.

But the concept of a medical home is still foreign to many people. They may not realize the benefits of having a doctor that is close to the family and is able to learn the particular characteristics of each of the individual family members. In this day and age of doctor visits that don’t last more than a few minutes, it’s especially important to make the most of the time spent consulting with your physician. The less he or she has to learn about your child, the more productive the visit will be.

This is often a difficult task when you consider the lack of health insurance that is so prevalent among so many Latinos. But Healthy Start also provides a toll-free number that allows callers to find out if their child qualifies for a state health insurance program – Medicaid or Health Choice.

Representatives at Univision 40 have also been helpful in providing us a channel to disseminate much needed information to the area’s Spanish-speaking residents. I was asked to participate during the taping of some of these spots. I gladly responded to the opportunity. We have tried hard to get as much information out to the public – specifically the Hispanic community. I hope to be able to count on these wonderful resources to help continue spreading much needed information about health to all sectors of the population.

On another topic, another February is behind us. So that means another “NBC17 Health & Fitness Festival” also is past. This year DHHS had a smaller booth and managed to cover just about every inch of the table with informative materials to hand out to the more than 36,000 people who showed up at the free event.

One thing that stood out this year was the level of cooperation from all across DHHS. In past years, garnering interest in this event proved to be a bit of a challenge. This year was dramatically different. I received offers from nearly a dozen individuals from various divisions who were willing to volunteer during the event. That far surpasses the support I’ve received in the past. In fact, one of the biggest challenges in preparing for this year’s Health Festival was sorting through all the volunteers. I never expected to have to turn people away – and the only reason I was forced to do that was due to the shortage of space at our booth. Our booth this year allowed space for only two to three people at a time.

But we made it work. We had materials from the Office of Citizen Services, the Division of Aging and Adult Services, the Division of Public Health’s Oral Health and Injury Prevention sections, the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services, and more. In addition, the Division of Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing operated its own booth. It is this level of support that helped us have an even better booth than in previous years. Not to mention this is the spirit I like to see in our staff. We shouldn’t forget that our ultimate goal is to serve and help our clients every chance we get. I’m proud to see how this was reflected at this year’s NBC17 Health Fest. Now rest up…only 11 more months ‘til the next one.

Next story

Last Modified: .