This web site is your online passport to the available resources and services offered by the Highlands County Health Department. We encourage you to explore this site and find out more about us.

In these challenging economic times, we are all facing a changing health care environment and rising health care costs. The Highlands County Health Department remains committed to fulfilling our community’s health needs by providing quality health care, excellent customer service and by maximizing access to our services.

Our mission is to promote, protect and improve the health of all residents of Highlands County.

Our staff understands the health department’s crucial role in assuring the safety and well being of all residents, as well as those visiting our county.

We encourage you to contact us with your questions or concerns at any time. Our phone number is (863) 386-6040.

Thank you for allowing us to serve you.

Sincerely,

Robert Palussek
Administrator

Mission

Promote, protect and improve the health of all people in Highlands County.

Vision

A healthier future for the people of Highlands County

Values (I Create)

Integrity: Our guide for actions - which incorporates our commitment to honesty, fairness, loyalty and trustworthiness - is in the best interests of our customers and employees.
Commitment to Service: We dedicate ourselves to provide services unconditionally and without partiality.
Respect: We recognize and honor the contributions of one another in our daily activities and create an environment where diversity is appreciated and encouraged.
Excellence: We achieve and maintain quality results and outcomes through continuous performance improvement and learning.
Accountability: We take full responsibility for our behavior and performance.
Teamwork: We encourage active collaboration to solve problems, make decisions and achieve common goals.
Empowerment: We create a culture that encourages people to exercise their judgment and initiative in pursuit of organizational goals.

Public is Health

Public Health is the science of protecting and improving the health of communities through education, promotion of healthy lifestyles, and research for disease and injury prevention. Public health professionals analyze the effect on health of genetics, personal choice and the environment in order to develop programs that protect the health of your family and community.
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The 20th Century's Ten Great Public Health Achievements in the United States

Vaccination

Programs of population-wide vaccinations resulted in the eradication of smallpox; elimination of polio in the Americas; and control of measles, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenza type b, and other infectious diseases in the United States and other parts of the world.

Motor-vehicle safety

Improvements in motor-vehicle safety have contributed to large reductions in motor-vehicle-related deaths. These improvements include engineering efforts to make both vehicles and highways safer and successful efforts to change personal behavior (e.g., increased use of safety belts, child safety seats, and motorcycle helmets and decreased drinking and driving).

Safer workplaces

Work-related health problems, such as coal workers' pneumoconiosis (black lung), and silicosis -- common at the beginning of the century -- have been significantly reduced. Severe injuries and deaths related to mining, manufacturing, construction, and transportation also have decreased; since 1980, safer workplaces have resulted in a reduction of approximately 40% in the rate of fatal occupational injuries.

Control of infectious diseases

Control of infectious diseases has resulted from clean water and better sanitation. Infections such as typhoid and cholera, major causes of illness and death early in the 20th century, have been reduced dramatically by improved sanitation. In addition, the discovery of anti microbial therapy has been critical to successful public health efforts to control infections such as tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases (STD's).

Decline in deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke

Decline in deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke have resulted from risk-factor modification, such as smoking cessation and blood pressure control coupled with improved access to early detection and better treatment. Since 1972, death rates for coronary heart disease has decreased 51%.

Safer and healthier foods

Since 1900, safer and healthier foods have resulted from decreases in microbial contamination and increases in nutritional content. Identifying essential micro nutrients and establishing food-fortification programs have almost eliminated major nutritional deficiency diseases such as rickets, goiter, and pellagra in the United States.

Healthier mothers and babies

Healthier mothers and babies are a result of better hygiene and nutrition, availability of antibiotics, greater access to health care, and technologic advances in maternal and neonatal medicine. Since 1900, infant mortality has decreased 90%, and maternal mortality has decreased 99%.

Family planning

Access to family planning and contraceptive services has altered social and economic roles of women. Family planning has provided health benefits such as smaller family size and longer interval between the birth of children; increased opportunities for preconception counseling and screening; fewer infant, child, and maternal deaths; and the use of barrier contraceptives to prevent pregnancy and transmission of human immunodeficiency virus and other STD's.

Fluoridation of drinking water

Fluoridation of drinking water began in 1945 and in 1999 reaches an estimated 144 million persons in the United States. Fluoridation safely and inexpensively benefits both children and adults by effectively preventing tooth decay, regardless of socioeconomic status or access to care. Fluoridation has played an important role in the reductions in tooth decay (40%-70% in children) and of tooth loss in adults (40%-60%).

Recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard

Recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard in 1964 has resulted in changes in the promotion of cessation of use, and reduction of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Since the initial Surgeon General's report on the health risks of smoking, the prevalence of smoking among adults has decreased, and millions of smoking-related deaths have been prevented.