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Message from the HHS OMH Director: The Surgeon General is calling on us to lead Every day, more than 75 people in our country die from a prescription drug or heroin overdose. In 2013, nearly 249 million prescriptions were written for opioids—enough for every adult in America to have a bottle of pills. A significant factor in the opioid epidemic is legally written prescriptions from doctors, dentists, nurse practitioners and physician assistants. As a physician myself, I understand the important role that we—the doctors, nurse practitioners, dentists and physician assistants of America—can play
Earlier this year, when the word “Zika” was just becoming known in the U.S., promotores de salud, also known as community health workers (CHWs), in Miami, Florida were already taking action and learning about the prevention and control of mosquito-borne diseases. In February, the Miami Dade Florida Health Department convened a community meeting that resulted in a call for more multilingual community education and awareness of Zika. The Florida Community Health Worker Coalition partnered with the Health Council of South Florida , the Miami Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and the
At the heart of the Caribbean-American community is a sentiment to never forget your roots. A new life filled with opportunity greets many who journey to the mainland United States, but they never forget those whom they love and cherish back in their homeland. This is a sentiment that I, as the daughter of Haitian immigrants, reflect on during this Caribbean American Heritage Month. In 2010, only eight days into a new position as Chief Medical Officer to the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), I was stunned by the news that a 7.0 earthquake