Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Eastern Ontario Health Unit Releases 75th Anniversary Video
The Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, and is releasing a historical video to mark the milestone. The video, A Pioneering Spirit: Celebrating 75 Years of Protecting and Promoting Health in Eastern Ontario, chronicles the humble but history-changing beginnings of the EOHU as the first public health unit in the province.
In 1935, the EOHU began as a 5-year pilot project funded by the Ontario government and the Rockefeller Foundation. At the time, the region was plagued by poor health, poverty and alarmingly high infant mortality rates. The EOHU was launched in an effort to save lives and improve health among Eastern Ontario residents. It proved successful, as infant mortality rates and deaths from tuberculosis and other diseases dropped dramatically over the course of the 5 year project. What began as an experiment soon became a model for public health services for the rest of Ontario. Within 15 years, 37 health units were in operation throughout the province.
According to Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, Medical Officer of Health, the EOHU continued to be at the forefront of many public health initiatives in the years that followed, including the push for legislation to pasteurize dairy products and the ban on smoking in public spaces. In the past year, the EOHU also became the first stand-alone health unit in Canada to achieve full accreditation status with Accreditation Canada.
Roumeliotis credits the long list of the EOHU’s accomplishments to the pioneering spirit and dedication of its public health employees throughout the years. “Challenges in public health have changed with the times, but the mission of our staff has always remained the same: to protect and promote the health of our community.”
In June, the EOHU’s anniversary was recognized by public health professionals from across the province, along with provincial and local politicians, at the annual conference for Association of Local Public Health Agencies (alPHa). The EOHU co-hosted the conference in Cornwall as part of its 75th anniversary celebrations.
Click here to watch the video.
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