What is a Healthy Community?
| 2019 Q4 | Publishers by Ann Frame Hertzog and Steven Hertzog
What is a Healthy Community? As we come to the end of the decade and start to look to the next, we thought this topic would be interesting to explore. What we learned was that creating a Healthy Community takes people and resources throughout the community working together.
As a community, we are fortunate to have a strong community hospital and healthcare options. But we also have healthcare disparities that many in the community are working to balance. From making sure that we feed our community to creating programs to address mental health issues, we have a lot of challenges. In this issue, we try to explore some of the ways the challenges are being addressed and how we respond to them. We look at several different areas of healthcare and our community. These areas were chosen as a sample of healthcare areas and challenges; they do not, by any means, represent the total range of healthcare practices or outreach we have in Lawrence. But hopefully, they serve as a representation of our community and give our readers insight into this vital issue in our community.
In looking at what a Healthy Community is, it is important to note that though this issue is focusing primarily on human health, a Healthy Community also needs healthy businesses. Healthy businesses are central to our community’s health and resources. This quote by former Surgeon General, Joycelyn Elders, is pertinent, “Health is more than the absence of disease. Health is about jobs and employment, education, the environment, and all of those things that go into making us healthy.”
One of the ways to keep our local businesses healthy is to use, patronize, and shop from our local businesses. At any time of year and in particular during the holiday season, when everyone is busy and looking to save time, don’t go online, support your local businesses and make the conscious decision to go local. Remember, before you go online and buy from huge corporations that pay no local sales tax and many no taxes at all, it is the local businesses that are paying local taxes, employing local workers, sponsoring local teams, providing local resources and contributing to the health of our community.
As a locally owned business, we appreciate everyone who supports local and contributes to the health and resources of our community.
Happy New Year,
- Ann Frame Hertzog,Editor-in-Chief/Publisher
Steven Hertzog, Chief Photographer/Publisher
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