What I Love About Public Health – Emily

Love is in the air here at Franklin County Public Health, so we decided to talk to some of our staff about what they love about serving our communities!

We were lucky to have a heart-to-heart with Emily from Behavioral Health and Addiction Services during a Q&A!:

What do you love about your job?

“My favorite part of my job is getting to meet so many passionate people working in the field of Behavioral Health and Addiction Services. This includes my coworkers/team as well as our partner agencies where we conduct outreach. Also, I love getting to see clients after they’ve went to treatment or made changes in their lives. Those success stories make the job worth it.”

What do you love about public health?

“Public Health, to me, is solution or prevention focused rather than being a Band-Aid for the problem. In other words, doctors treat you when you’re sick, but public health professionals are trying to prevent you from getting sick in the first place. That’s truly a special kind of job!”

What makes your job important in the context of public health?

“My job is specifically focused on meeting the communities where they are, which is a unique position to be in to bring change within an individual. Rather than the client having to seek me out, I’m seeking them out and helping them get the resources they need. This gives me an opportunity to improve their health by connecting them to resources they didn’t know existed.”

Anything you want the general public to know?

“Harm reduction emphasizes engaging directly with people who use drugs to prevent overdose and infectious disease transmission, improve the physical, mental and social wellbeing of those served, and offer easier access to substance use disorder treatment and other health care services.

These services decrease overdose deaths, life-threatening infections related to unsterile drug injection and chronic diseases such as HIV/HCV. Harm reduction can be mis-labeled as enabling, but it’s not. It’s treating people with humility and respect in order to meet them where they are in the recovery process.”