PUBLIC HEALTH CHANGE PROCESS

Public Health Change Process

Public Health Change Process

Abstract

Food is a vital ingredient to the survival of life on earth. Food gives people the energy to carry out everyday tasks. With food being so important to life, should it not be of highest quality? Food is prepared, cooked and consumed every minute of every day. How do consumers know that the food is safe? The group members of We 8 A Lot went on a mission to find out exactly how food consumers are protected and by whom. Through research and interviews with the Environmental Management Department of Sacramento County, it was found that there are a group of individuals who work diligently to protect food consumers by inspecting the 6,000 food facilities in Sacramento County(County of Sacramento California Website, 2004).

Introduction

For the case study, our group chose to investigate the Food Protection Program that resides within the Environmental Health Division which operates under the umbrella of the Environmental Management Department (EMD) of Sacramento County. The functions of this department not only protect residents and consumers of this county in the matter of retail food safety but, also by the regulation and enforcement of water protection and hazardous materials.

On October 1, 2004, an interview was conducted at the Environmental Health Division office located at 8475 Jackson Road, in Sacramento, with June Livingston, Communications and Media Officer and Richard Sanchez, Environmental Program Manager.

In the interview, Mr. Sanchez revealed that there are "close to 6000, food facilities in this [Sacramento] county" (personal communication, October 1, 2004) With this many retail food facilities in Sacramento County and the consumer culture of Americans, the potential for food-borne illness is staggering. Just one instance of improper handling, storage, or cooking of foods in retail food facilities can cause serious outbreaks of infections or in severe cases, death. On average, each day in the United States alone, "over 200,000 people fall ill with a food-borne illness and of those, fourteen will die" (Sizer & Whitney, 2003, p. 511) Keeping this in mind and the fact that food is one humanity's most basic needs for survival, this agency most definitely warrants study(County of Sacramento Environmental Department Website, 2004).

Since our team was quite large, 8 members, and relative to food, we decided to name it, "We 8 a lot". Similarly, due to our team size we decided to split it into halves. One-half of the team devoted their efforts to online and print research while the other half focused on interview and personal communication research.

Project tasks were divided between the team members and each member was deemed responsible for his or her content area. Moreover, leadership positions of paper editor, Power Point manager, and team recorder were established on a volunteer basis to avoid any confusion during the project.

The members of this team, listed alphabetically are: Simranjot Bains, David Chan, Lynn Gervacio, Safiya Nuur, Joy Pastones, Shantell Payne, Valerie Quitoriano, and Yvonne Rains.

History and Development

Prior to becoming a department, EMD program elements were housed in the County Health ...