Politics & Government

Rockland Honors 'Unsung Heroes' of Health Department

After leading county's efforts against H1N1 virus, agency cited as 'Department of the Year.'

For the staff of the Rockland County Health Department, their greatest victories come when nothing happens - when illness doesn't spread, when healthy lives continue without the pain brought on by preventable sickness.

After a year like 2009, when the nation feared the spead of the H1N1 "swine flu" virus, Health Commissioner Joan Facelle says members of her staff are Rockland's unsung heroes.

Recognition for the Health Department's efforts at fighting illness, however, has come from County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, who has cited the Health Department as the county government's "Department of the Year.

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"You are in the prevention business," Vanderhoef told county health workers during a staff meeting at the agency's offices in Pomona. "It's the absence of sickness and diseases that makes you successful."

Vanderhoef said he decided to give his annual department award to the Health Department based on the staff's ability to do more and handle potential health hazards well despite having fewer resources.

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Vanderhoef said the work of county Health Department staffers was critical in organizing the many H1N1 clinics that were held around the county, spreading educational information and then helping to run the clinics.

In speaking with the health workers, Vanderhoef said he received calls and letters praising the work of Health Department staffers at clinics. He said praise came especially for the way staffers treated members of the public - many of them senior citizens - during the H1N1 clinics.

Facelle, who accepted the award for her staff, said during the past year workers from throughout the Health Department have pitched in with extra efforts at all levels to meet threats such as the H1N1 virus and still continue the agency's other work - ranging from health education and restaurant inspections to controlling mosquitoes and the spread of West Nile virus.

 


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