Skin Cancer Screening Clinic

Livingston County Health Center will be the site of a free Skin Cancer Screening Clinic on Wednesday, May 11th by appointment only.   

Cleaver Dermatology of Kirksville will be providing two dermatologists to perform screenings at the clinic, opening up more appointment slots.

You must have an appointment to attend this screening, as space is very limited.  If you receive an appointment and later need to cancel, please let us know, so we can fill your slot.   

It’s important to remember that skin cancer can happen at any age, it doesn’t just affect seniors after years of damage.  Skin cancers like melanoma are deadly, and need to be treated sooner rather than later.  If you have never been checked for skin cancer, or have some spots, moles or other areas on your skin that concern you, come to this free clinic.

To make your appointment for the May 11th Skin Cancer Screening Clinic, call the health center at 646-5506. 

Show Me Health - Child Abuse

It's hard to imagine someone intentionally hurting a child, yet nearly a million children are abused every year just in the United States alone. And these are only the reported incidents of child abuse — many more cases are unreported and undetected, often because children are afraid to tell somebody who can help.

Most of the time, kids know their abusers and the abuse occurs in the home. This makes it difficult for kids to speak up. They may feel trapped by the affection they feel for their abusers or fearful of the power the abusers have over them — so they stay silent. That's why it's especially important to be able to recognize the signs of child abuse.

What Is Child Abuse?

Child abuse happens when a parent or other adult causes serious physical or emotional harm to a child.

In the United States, the laws defining what constitutes child abuse vary from state to state, but generally speaking, child abuse can take these forms:

• physical abuse
• sexual abuse
• neglect and abandonment
• emotional or psychological abuse

The most serious cases of child abuse can end in death. Those who survive may suffer emotional scars that can linger long after the physical bruises have healed. Kids who are abused are more likely to have problems building and maintaining relationships throughout their lives. They're also more likely to have low self-esteem, depression, thoughts of suicide, and other mental health issues.

Physical Abuse

When people think of child abuse, their first thought probably is of physical abuse — such as striking, kicking, or shaking a child.

Abusive head trauma, or shaken baby syndrome, is a specific form of physical abuse. It's the leading cause of death in child abuse cases in the U.S. Most incidents last just a few seconds, but that's enough time to cause brain damage or even kill a baby.

Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse happens when a child is raped or forced to commit a sexual act. But it's also any sort of sexual contact with a child or any behavior that is meant to sexually arouse the abuser.

Neglect

Neglect is any action — or inaction — on the part of a caregiver that causes a child physical or emotional harm. For example, withholding food, warmth in cold weather, or proper housing is considered neglectful. Basically, anything that interferes with a child's growth and development constitutes neglect.

Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse or psychological abuse is a pattern of behavior that has negative effects on a child's emotional development and sense of self-worth. Ignoring a child or withholding love, support, or guidance is considered emotional abuse. So is threatening, terrorizing, belittling, or constantly criticizing a child.

Signs of Abuse

It's sometimes difficult to tell the difference between the ordinary scrapes and scratches of childhood and a physical sign of child abuse. Multiple bruises or those that keep coming back, black eyes, and broken bones are certainly red flags, but other signs — like a child's emotional health — are also telling.

If You Suspect Abuse

Abuse is not a private family matter, although it most often occurs within families and often is kept as a family secret. Once you suspect child abuse, you need to act to protect the child from further possible harm. It doesn't matter if you're wrong: it's better to be wrong than sorry.

While not all suspicions and accusations of child abuse turn out to be true, all deserve serious attention and immediate action. Child abuse can rob kids of the joy of growing up and affect them negatively for years to come.

But abuse doesn't have to ruin a child's life, as long as it's stopped and dealt with. The earlier abuse can be identified and stopped, the less destructive it will be. Healing from the abuse and dealing with its aftermath can also start that much earlier.

So take any accusations of abuse seriously until you know for sure whether or not they're true. All children deserve to be heard, protected, and helped, no matter what.

If you made it to the end of this article-thank you.  It’s so easy to gloss over information about child abuse.  It’s often hard to hear, and hard to think about when you feel powerless to help.  But rest assured, there are children in your child’s school, in your neighborhood, in your community and possibly even in your family being permanently altered by the abusive behaviors of an adult.

I’d like to invite you to, “Stewards of Children” a special training for anyone who works with children, at the Livingston County Library on Friday, April 22^nd  at 10 a.m.  to 12 p.m.  Please take a few minutes of your day to remember the children dealing with this issue and learn what you can do to help.

Source: Kids Health

“Stewards of Children” Child Abuse Prevention Training Coming Up Friday, April 22nd

The Livingston County Children’s Wellness Committee will be providing “Stewards of Children,” a child abuse prevention training, on Friday, April 22^nd  from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Livingston County Library, in the upstairs courtroom.

“Stewards of Children” is a two-hour, video-facilitated, interactive prevention training program created by the organization Darkness to Light, founded with the goal of reducing the incidence of child sexual abuse.  Participants will not only gain a better understanding of how to recognize the signs of abuse, but will also walk away knowing how to respond when they suspect abuse and how to better protect the children in their own lives.   The training also teaches the effects of sexual abuse on child victims. 

The goal of this program is to raise awareness and educate adults about child sexual abuse.  This program is designed to increase knowledge as well as change attitudes and behaviors regarding the protection of children.

Mary Taylor, RN and Maternal Child Health Coordinator for the Livingston County Health Center will be facilitating the training.

Sexual abuse affects one in 10 children.  Learning about sexual abuse is the first step in helping to prevent it.  Those interesting in attending this training should call the Livingston County Health Center at 660-646-5506 to register.  There is no cost to attend this training. 

All services of the health center are provided on a non-discriminatory basis.

Show Me Health - Public Health Week

Every person plays an important role in improving the health of the nation because good personal health is connected to good public health. Each year, the first full week of April is recognized as National Public Health Week. This is a time to celebrate advances in public health and educate people that where they live, work and play directly influences their health.

The theme of this year’s Public Health Week is “Healthy Missouri 2030: Making Communities Stronger.” 

Americans are living 20 years longer than their grandparents’ generation, thanks largely to the work of public health. Still, people in many other high income countries live longer and suffer fewer health issues than we do.  This is the defining challenge of our generation – a challenge that we, the public health community, are uniquely positioned to help overcome.

Here are just a few statistics that reflect the status of our health in the United States:

·         More Americans age 65+ suffer at least two chronic conditions.

·         Our babies are 50 percent more likely to die before their first birthday

·         On  average, our lives are 3 years shorter than in many other countries.

We know good health depends on many things, such as environment, income, food and nutrition, healthy behavior choices, neighborhoods and access to health care.  Social, environmental and individual factors influence both our health and our ability to make healthy choices. Health care is only a small contributor to our health and wellness.

The goal of public health is to prevent, promote and protect the health of all people.  Public Health Week highlights several areas in which work is needed to improve our health status as a nation.  Here are a few ways in which your local health department strives for improvement.

Build a Nation of Healthy, Safe Communities

The Health Center is Livingston County’s local public health agency, and therefore responsible for many areas of health & safety in our communities.  For example, our office inspects restaurants, motels and taverns for food sanitation, to make sure the food you’re eating won’t make you sick.  We are the local provider of immunizations which keep our kids healthy and prevent disability and death.  By promoting the required immunizations and offering convenient clinics to receive them, we are helping to protect the community at large-even those who don’t participate in immunizations. 

Our office brought the “Livable Streets” philosophy to Chillicothe, to encourage city leaders to create policy change and improve the quality of our streets and sidewalks.  

We are also responsible for disease surveillance and investigation.  By tracking infectious diseases, we help stop outbreaks in their tracks, and get people the necessary information and prophylactics to get better and not infect anyone else.  Our communicable disease coordinator works with local law enforcement and the animal shelter to conduct dog bite investigations to prevent rabies infections.

Give everyone a choice of healthy food…

Our food system should provide affordable food with nutritious ingredients, free from harmful contaminants. For many families, eating healthy is a daily challenge.  The Health Center has been addressing this need for the past two years through our Maternal Child Health program.  We began by providing fun educational activities at our local Farmer’s Market and continued with a Healthy Eating, Active Living grant through the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.   The grant provided funds to build a fully-functioning container Garden Classroom to the students of our local PowerUP! Afterschool Program at North Missouri Center for Youth & Families.  Our agency partnered with the Center, as well as our local University of Missouri Extension Office & 4-H program to provide comprehensive education and hands on experience for kids.  The project lets kids get real hands-on experience in growing their own food.  This year, we are continuing the project at the school with a new partnership with the Chilllicothe Garden Club, a member of Federated Garden Clubs of Missouri and National  Garden Clubs, Inc.   You will also see table tents in local restaurants this month encouraging families to garden with their kids for all kinds of benefits. 

Provide quality health care for everyone…

We need to shift the main focus of our health system from one that treats illness to one that equally emphasizes prevention.  Locally, the Health Center provides bi-monthly blood draw clinics to encourage residents to take charge of their health.  The clinics offer routine lab testing at an affordable rate to make catching a problem before it becomes a disability more achievable for our residents.  It is our hope that this will not only lower healthcare costs, but improve the quality of life for our people.

We also offer many routine preventive healthcare services through our Tuesday walk-in clinics, including TB testing, pregnancy testing, blood pressure checks, vaccinations, b12 injections and more. 

Strengthen public health infrastructure and capacity…

Strong and consistent funding levels are necessary for the public health system to respond to both everyday health threats and also unexpected health emergencies.   Missouri is ranked the lowest state in the nation as far as spending on public health programs.   Our local public health agencies staff wear many hats besides their job position, especially in the area of emergency preparedness.  Our small rural communities work together closely to prepare for threats to our residents’ health and safety.   Without this culture of cooperation and cost-sharing, our area of the state would be much more vulnerable to threats of all kinds.

These are just a few of the ways your local public health department is working for you, behind the scenes.  It is our mission to make Livingston County as healthy and safe as possible, every day of the year.

2016 Spring Walking Challenge

Registration is underway for a Spring Walking Challenge to be held April 10th through June 5th . The challenge is a continuation of Livingston County Health Center’s “Walk Chillicothe” Project.

Those interested can sign up now through Monday, April 11th to participate in the challenge.  Late registrations will be accepted, but the Health Center would like to get as many on the books by starting day as possible. The requirements are simple: pledge to walk 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week for 8 weeks.  Record walking on an exercise log and turn it in after the 8 weeks to be eligible for the prize drawing.  This year’s drawing includes a Kindle, gift cards and fitness giveaways.  Even if you fall short of your goal, all entries submitted will be put in the drawing.

The walking challenge is an attempt to get people motivated to start a walking habit that will be established after the eight week period.  

Local worksites are also being targeted in the challenge to encourage employers to promote a healthy lifestyle to their workers.

If you would like to sign up for the challenge, call 646-5506 or visit our website at www.livcohealthcenter.com.  You can also stop by our office at 800 Adam Drive to register and pick up an exercise log while you’re here!

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Sitting Disease

Did you know that sitting down all day can kill you? As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, a new study highlights the dangers we face from sitting down all day. The study, which came from the Median Journal, shows, among other things, that those who spend the majority of their day sitting down are an alarming 54% more likely to die from a heart attack.

The average person spends about 9.3 hours a day sitting down. That is more than we spend sleeping, which is about 7.7 hours. Part of the increase is due to computers, TV and the fact that most of us work sitting behind a desk all day.

So why is sitting all day so dangerous? Sitting down all day can make us fat. In average, obese people sit for about 2.5 more hours per day than their thin counterparts. One out of 3 Americans today is considered obese.

Here are some more alarming and disturbing statistics to deal with. I hope you are sitting down for this.

Sitting down increases the risk of death by about 40%. This means if you spend 6 or more hours a day sitting, it can actually make you more 40% likely to die within the next fifteen years.

Sitting wrecks your body:

•  The moment you sit, your caloric burning drops to about 1% per minute.

•  The moment you sit, all electrical activities shut off in your leg muscles.

• The moment you sit, enzymes, which help break down body fat, drop an astounding 90%.

•  Sitting after two hours causes a drop of about 20% of your good cholesterol.  

•  Sitting for 24 hours causes the risk of diabetes to rise since your insulin effectiveness drops about 25%.  

Try to interrupt your sitting down time as much as possible during the day.

•  You may want to do some stretching, walking or even some jumping jacks.

•   Try to take the stairs whenever you can as opposed to riding the elevator.

•    If you sit at a 135 degree angle, you will put less strain on your back than if you're sitting straight or hunched forward.

•  Walking around actually burns about 3 to 5 times the amount of calories that sitting does. This means you should take every opportunity you can to walk around the office or at home if you are sitting down for long periods of time.

For most of us it is impossible not to sit about 8 hours a day at work. So what can you do to survive sitting down all day? 

What about at home? Most of us want to put our feet up after a day’s work-not that it always happens, but it sounds good. We forget we’ve been sitting down more of our day than standing or walking.  Most of us watch our share of TV, plus the neighbor’s.  Keep in mind that those who sit about 3 hours or more each day watching TV, we are 64% more likely to die from heart disease.  For each hour you spend watching TV, it equals to about an 11% higher risk of death.

If you go back to about a hundred years, when most of us worked in fields, factories and spent less time sitting down, obesity was almost non-existent.  Life required a more active lifestyle, but it kept people healthier, leaner and stronger.  These days, we can push a button to take care of many of the things we had to get up and walk to do-like change the channel.  The advancement of technology has left many of us sitting in a chair, staring down at a cell phone, instead of throwing a Frisbie in the back yard, or taking a walk.   Think of ways you can add physical activity back into your lifestyle.  For instance, manual lawn mowers aren’t that expensive, and are definitely eco-friendly.  Using one to cut your grass would require regular exercise…well, in a normal summer with some precipitation it would anyway.

So now that you know that sitting down all day can kill you, what are your ideas about ways to fit more activity in to your day?

Originally published - Show Me Health - Sitting Disease - September 2012

Source: Dr. Mike Evans, Mayo Clinic, USA Today, JustStand.org

Brain Injury Awareness - Show Me Health

A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury—or TBI—caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or by a hit to the body that causes the head and brain to move rapidly back and forth. This sudden movement can cause the brain to bounce around or twist in the skull, stretching and damaging the brain cells and creating chemical changes in the brain.

Medical providers may describe a concussion as a “mild” brain injury because concussions are usually not life-threatening. Even so, the effects of a concussion can be serious.

Children and teens who show or report one or more of the signs and symptoms listed below, or simply say they just “don't feel right” after a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or body, may have a concussion or more serious brain injury.

Concussion Signs Observed

•     Can’t recall events prior to or after a hit or fall.
•     Appears dazed or stunned.
•     Forgets an instruction, is confused about an assignment or position, or is unsure of       the game, score, or opponent.
•     Moves clumsily.
•     Answers questions slowly.
•     Loses consciousness (even briefly).
•     Shows mood, behavior, or personality changes.

Concussion Symptoms Reported

•     Headache or “pressure” in head.
•     Nausea or vomiting.
•     Balance problems or dizziness, or double or blurry vision.
•     Bothered by light or noise.
•     Feeling sluggish, hazy, foggy, or groggy.
•     Confusion, or concentration or memory problems.
•     Just not “feeling right,” or “feeling down”.

Signs and symptoms generally show up soon after the injury. However, you may not know how serious the injury is at first and some symptoms may not show up for hours or days. For example, in the first few minutes your child or teen might be a little confused or a bit dazed, but an hour later your child might not be able to remember how he or she got hurt.

You should continue to check for signs of concussion right after the injury and a few days after the injury. If your child or teen’s concussion signs or symptoms get worse, you should take him or her to the emergency department right away.

Rest is very important after a concussion because it helps the brain heal. Your child or teen may need to limit activities while he or she is recovering from a concussion. Physical activities or activities that involve a lot of concentration, such as studying, working on the computer, or playing video games may cause concussion symptoms (such as headache or tiredness) to come back or get worse. After a concussion, physical and cognitive activities—such as concentration and learning—should be carefully watched by a medical provider. As the days go by, your child or teen can expect to slowly feel better.

    

Have your child or teen get plenty of rest. 

Keep a regular sleep routine, including no late nights and no sleepovers.

Make sure your child or teen avoids high-risk/high-speed activities that could result in another bump, blow, or jolt to the head or body, such as riding a bicycle, playing sports, climbing playground equipment, and riding roller coasters . Children and teens should not return to these types of activities until their medical provider says they are well enough.

Return Slowly to Activities.   

When your child or teen’s medical provider says they are well enough, make sure they return to their normal activities slowly, not all at once.

Talk with their medical provider about when your child or teen should return to school and other activities and how you can help him or her deal with any challenges during their recovery. For example, your child may need to spend less time at school, rest often, or be given more time to take tests.

Ask your child’s medical provider when he or she can safely drive a car or ride a bike.

There are many people who can help you and your family as your child or teen recovers. You do not have to do it alone. Keep talking with your medical provider, family members, and loved ones about how your child or teen is feeling. If you do not think he or she is getting better, tell your medical provider.

Source:  CDC