Help in Public Health, February 2023

Help in Public Health, February 2023

Here we are! It seems as if 2023 just began, and we already closed out the first month of the new year. 

In comparison to the previous three years, January 2023 has arguably brought about similar modes of turmoil and upheaval. From multiple school and residential mass shootings to US-Iranian tensions and retaliation, and from political unrest and “incitement of insurrection” to perhaps most notable, the Covid-19 pandemic and its variants, society has been forced to face a plethora of emotions within the last few years. As a result, there has been an influx of physical, financial, and psychosocial dismay. 

There are multiple signs that our society continues to battle needs that are, for one reason or another, going unmet. Each race (with the exception of non-Hispanic Asian people) experienced an increase in drug overdoses between 2020 and 2021. Hypertension, depression, hyperlipidemia, and substance abuse or dependence rank among the top five chronic health conditions presented during emergency room admissions in 2020. “In 2021, the county-level poverty rate for school-age children (ages 5 to 17) ranged from 2.4% to 61.1%, with a median rate of 17.8%.” And yet, society continues to press forward in hopes of one day sliding from beneath the shadows of such dire circumstances.

Leading the efforts in providing hope through resources, encouragement, and services are health educators, medical staff, social and community services managers, and mental and behavioral health service managers, to name a few. These professionals are tasked with promoting total wellness and improving access to services that yield optimal health. This is a heavy burden to bear, especially given the increase in mental illness, behavioral disorder diagnoses, poverty, and social unrest. Perhaps, it is understandable why the public health industry continues to see spikes in turnover, resulting in “the growing demand that the public health workforce perform evidence-based, accountable, and high-quality public health services” and in gaps in service accessibility.

Executive leadership, program managers, and others who influence policy within the public health industry should take added strides to assure that DEI is not only present in policy, but presented in practice– fully engaging employees about job satisfaction, adequately investing in job skill development, and assessing for other predictors of employee retention and turnover. Without these unsung heroes, our society will struggle to press forward when it matters most.

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SOURCES

1. Spencer MR, Miniño AM, Warner M. Drug overdose deaths in the United States, 2001–2021. NCHS Data Brief, no 457. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2022. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15620/cdc:122556.

2. National Center for Health Statistics, National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 2020.

3. U.S. Census BureauSmall Area Income and Poverty Estimates for States, Counties and School Districts, 2022

4. Leider, Jonathon P. PhD; Shah, Gulzar H. PhD, MStat, MS; Yeager, Valerie A. DrPH, MPhil; Yin, Jingjing PhD, MA; Madamala, Kusuma PhD, MPH. Turnover, COVID-19, and Reasons for Leaving and Staying Within Governmental Public Health. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice 29(Supplement 1):p S54-S63, January/February 2023. | DOI: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000001634