Saline County Health Unit welcomes new administrator
By LaJUAN MOONEY Features editor

GLAD TO BE HERE LAJUAN MOONEY PHOTO Eydie Abercrombie joined the staff of the Saline County Health Unit as administrator in February.

The Saline County Health Unit has welcomed a new administrator, Eydie Abercrombie.

Abercrombie has been with the Arkansas Department of Health since moving to northwest Arkansas six years ago.

She is a native of Bakersfield, Calif., and has lived in Benton for the past two years and accepted the position of administrator for the Saline County Health Unit four weeks ago.

"I am so excited to be living and working in the same community," she says.

For most of the past 20-plus years, her career has been in community health. The past five years she has spent working to promote the health of Arkansas. She brings a wealth of clinic management experience in a multitude of settings, such as medical centers, managedcare organizations, community health centers, quality management and rehabilitation.

She is a registered clinical exercise physiologist, a certified health education specialist and certified lactation educator. Her undergraduate degree is in physical education and health science. She also has a certifi- cate in gerontology and is finishing her master's degree in public health at UAMS College of Public Health.

She and her husband have five children and are the grandparents of nine. One son lives in Saline County; her daughter in the Air Force and grandson live in Shreveport, La., and the rest of the family lives on the West Coast. In her leisure time, she enjoys gardening (when the Arkansas weather cooperates), working sudoku puzzles, exercise, community service and spoiling her grandchildren when she can (and not necessarily in that order).

"I wholeheartedly believe in the mission of the Arkansas Department of Health," she said, " 'to promote public health policies and practices that ensure a healthy quality of life of Arkansans' and my focus is finding ways to do just that in Saline County. My vision is to build a healthy future for Saline County."

Local health units in Arkansas protect and improve community well being by preventing disease, illness an injury and impacting social, economic and enviromental factors fundamental to excellent health. They are responsible for creating and maintaining conditions that keep all people healthy.

Local health units, acting as the local public health agency:

• Understand the specific health issues confronting the community;

• Investigate health problems and health threats;

• Prevent, minimize and contain adverse health affects from communicable diseases, disease outbreaks from unsafe food and water, chronic diseases, environmental hazards, injuries and risky health behaviors;

• Lead planning and response activities for public health agencies;

• Collaborate with other local responders and with state and federal agencies to intervene in other emergencies with public health significance;

• Implement health promotion programs;

• Engage the community to address public health issues;

• Develop partnerships with public and private health care providers and institutions, other government agencies engaged in services that affect health, community-based organizations and others to collectively identify, alleviate and act on the sources of public health problems;

• Serve as an essential resource for local governing bodies and policymakers on upto date public health laws and polices; and

• Strategically plan services and activities, evaluate performance and outcomes and make adjustments as needed to continually improve its effectiveness, enhance the community's health status and meet the community's expectations

The local health unit is a leader in improving the health and well being of your community. They guard and protect against health threats, provide leadership, improve health and safety and share knowledge with the community. They are an essential and cost-effective public investment.