National Health Center Week begins today (Monday, August 7th). The Mobile County Health Department is working with its primary care division, Family Health, on the campaign.
It's one of a few federally qualified health centers in the Mobile area. Several activities are planned for the week. This included Healthcare for the Homeless Day happening today and Agricultural Worker Health Day set for tomorrow. Saturday, August 12th, is Children's Health Day, which focuses on students going back to school and the immunizations that go with it.
Dr. Kevin Michaels is the health officer for Mobile County Health Department. He said the first step in determining which vaccines your child needs is reaching out to the child's primary care provider.
“Well, they should start off by calling the primary care provider," he explained. "And ask them: hey, I think my child needs to be up to date... needs some vaccines. Can they look in their medical records and see what do they need?”
He also said he wants families to understand the importance of vaccinations as they start the new school year. “Typically, you're looking at tetanus, measles, mumps and rubella, polio, HPV, Human Papilloma Virus, varicella... So, there's a whole degree of sequences for those vaccines.”
Family Health offers a sliding scale fee program. More can be found on the program here.
There are many health centers associated with National Health Center Week across the state this week. Check with your community health center for more information.
