Welcome to Healthy Ozarks!

The Springfield-Greene County Health Department is excited to launch its official blog, Healthy Ozarks, to help educate the community on important aspects of personal health and community wellness.

You may be wondering, “Why create a blog to spread the word about public health?” And possibly, “Why now?”

Public health has been under a spotlight the last few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This spotlight has given health departments across the world opportunity to exceed pre-pandemic reach in their communities about often overlooked areas of public health. Here at the Health Department, this includes things like Sexually Transmitted Infection testing and outreach, Women, Infants, and Children services (WIC), and Prenatal Case Management and Special Care Infant Services (NEST Partnership).

Creating a blog to shine an even brighter spotlight on public health and keep our community informed is the goal of Healthy Ozarks. Articles featured in Healthy Ozarks will be written by Health Department leadership and subject matter experts and will touch on important health topics including mental health, heart and lung health, health equity, and much more.

“Healthy Ozarks was created with public health education in mind,” said Katie Towns, Health Department Director, “It’s an additional resource created directly by our experts here at the Health Department for our community to learn more about what public health does for the community and how it can help them and their loved ones.”

We welcome you to read Healthy Ozarks and use it as a resource to learn more about the vitality of public health in our community.

Come back to check out the first blog post, written by Dr. Nancy Yoon, later this week.