Orange County Health Department Focuses on Public Outreach

The Orange County Health Department has released its annual report highlighting some of the department’s successes.

Spokesperson Stacy Shelp said a lot of their work relies on strong local partnerships.

“The work we are doing both as a health department and a community is just so critical and we are really seeing an impact being made. We are seeing healthier individuals and a healthier culture,” said Shelp.

Orange County is the first health department to post their health inspection scores directly to Yelp, a popular website that evaluates restaurants on customer reviews.

“Knowing the importance of technology and peoples use of applications such as Yelp to look at where am I going to go for dinner? This would be a great place to have that information at your fingertips when you’re making those choices,” said Shelp.

There have been some trends over the past year that worry the health department.

“We are also seeing more trends that are a little more frightening, like an increase in STD cases, so really needing to do more education around prevention of sexually transmitted diseases,” said Shelp.

Last year the health department received recognition for its opium overdose program. Police and emergency services now have access to the drug Naloxone, which can help reverse an overdose.

The Health Department has also extended their anti-smoking efforts to include public housing.

“Our services and our partnerships have gone in and worked on projects around teaching property managers about how they can create their own smoke free facilities in public housing, which is very exciting,” said Shelp.

You can view the full report here