The Workplace of Public Well being Follow within the IU College of Public Well being celebrated Nationwide Public Well being Week this week with a collection of events akin to meals drives and de-stressing actions.
Yearly, through the first full week of April, the American Public Health Association organizes NPHW to teach folks on public well being points starting from psychological wellness to well being care entry.
Ta-Kisha Jones, affiliate director of Public Well being Follow within the SPH, led the group organizing IU NPHW this yr. Jones stated NPHW brings communities collectively to rejoice how persons are more healthy and stronger when they’re united.
The APHA chosen “Public Well being is The place You Are” because the theme for the week.
“It is a week to rejoice not solely public well being professionals, however the work that’s carried out by way of our public well being,” Jones stated. “It signifies that whether or not you are on campus or off campus, whether or not you’re a dentist, whether or not you are an individual who takes out the trash, whether or not you are a nurse or only a scholar, public well being is wherever you might be.”
IU’s NPHW had a special theme: “Leveraging Resilience and Shifting Momentum”. Jones stated this theme centered on celebrating college students’ and employees’s efforts to keep up the well being and wellness of everybody on campus.
Jones stated the group organizing IU NPHW gathered knowledge about public well being points college students are going through at this time, akin to psychological well being struggles, and used college and neighborhood assets to handle them.
On Monday, college students might de-stress by spending time with two remedy canines from the Monroe County Humane Society exterior the SPH.
Specialists mentioned environmental racism and advocacy in a panel dialogue Tuesday, which was the primary in a three-part Juneteenth collection.
The Workplace of Public Well being Follow additionally arrange scholar appreciation stations within the SPH and the Indiana Memorial Union so college students might make beaded bracelets and embellish potted vegetation Tuesday.
Aly Lewis, an IU Pupil Well being Heart scholar intern who labored on the potted plant station, stated she loved interacting with college students and telling them about public well being.
“It is enjoyable to convey pleasure to folks’s lives all through the day with a little bit potted plant whereas educating them,” Lewis stated.
On Wednesday, SPH profession coaches, and a panel of company, mentioned professionalism and inclusion within the office.
Rory James, director of the Workplace of Pupil Variety and Inclusion on the SPH, stated through the panel college students ought to improve their cultural and emotional intelligence as a result of it is a crucial a part of skilled growth.
“We now have seen this shift the place, now, on this post-pandemic office, we’re being extra in tune to accommodate and settle for folks of various identities,” James stated.
On Thursday, college students participated in a scavenger hunt selling bodily exercise and realized to organize a cheap, plant-based meal.
Katie Shepherd, a registered dietitian on the IU Pupil Well being Heart, led the cooking demonstration. Shepherd stated NPHW helps folks exterior of the general public well being subject study in regards to the significance of public well being.
“Earlier than COVID, folks did not actually know what public well being was,” Shepherd stated. “These occasions assist folks have much more consciousness about public well being and their very own well being.”
College students can observe mindfulness meditation and study self-care methods Friday over Zoom.
The Washington County Wellness Honest will happen Saturday, the final day of IU’s NPHW. It can embody free well being companies and wellness assets akin to well being screenings and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid software help.
Jones stated the occasions to date have been very profitable in educating folks about their well being.
“We’re specializing in consuming proper, wholesome motion, and never only a sedentary way of life that we’re accustomed to now with a whole lot of distant work, and combating psychological well being points,” Jones stated. “Discovering a solution to combine all of it and be holistically effectively is essential.”
