national social worker month 2019 – Legacy Healthcare Careers Medication Aide & Nursing Assistant Programs

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The month of March has been designated as National Professional Social Work Month. In fact, a previous post on this website had been dedicated to Social Work Month. In addition, March happens to be National Nutrition Month. Since nutritional choices are known to exert such a notably profound impact on peoples’ health statuses, National Nutrition Month deserves a very honorable mention and a post to call its own.

National Nutrition Month is an informational and educational campaign that lasts for one entire month. The entire purpose and aim of this campaign is to educate people in the U.S. on a massive scale regarding principles of good nutrition, as well as prompt them to pay closer attention to the sheer importance of opting for regular exercise, overall physical fitness, and nutritious food choices.

This campaign is viewed by dietitians, nutritionists, dietetic technicians and other important stakeholders in the health and fitness sector as an effective means to promote the significance of optimal nutrition and regular exercise habits to the American public on a very large scale. After all, good nutrition and consistent exercise can result in good health, while poor nutrition and no exercise can lead to disease and premature death.

Improving one’s health status through good nutritional choices enhances well-being; in addition, weight loss and/or maintenance of an ideal body weight can lessen the risk of developing chronic medical afflictions such as heart disease and diabetes (National Day Calendar, 2019). In other words, the goals of National Nutrition Month are really noble and should be applauded by all members of the American public.

Here is a brief history on the interesting origins of National Nutrition Month. It all got started in 1973 as National Nutrition Week. In 1980, the formerly one week-long celebration ended up ballooning into a one month-long observance as a direct response to the public’s increasing attention to matters that revolved around nutrition. This makes perfect sense due to the fact that nutrition affects every aspect of most peoples’ lives.

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (2019), National Nutrition Month, which is recognized on a yearly basis during the month of March, aims to help people recognize the importance of making informed nutritional choices and cultivating good eating habits and physical activity routines. Healthy diets and healthful exercise routines are solid habits that can prevent disease and help people to live longer lives.

Here is an example of how nutrition can directly affect an individual’s health status in a detrimental manner. Even though it is true that type 2 diabetes has a strong hereditary component, development of this metabolic disease is often triggered by poor nutritional choices such as a diet that contains too many processed carbohydrates. In addition, nearly 90 percent of persons afflicted with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese.

Moreover, type 2 diabetes actually can be put into remission in its early stages by strict adherence to a healthy low glycemic diet that significantly curtails or eliminates added sugars and processed carbohydrates, as well as losing enough weight to get one’s body weight into the normal range of the body mass index (BMI). Yes, type 2 diabetes can be reversed in its earliest stages through implementation of hardcore lifestyle changes.

Hence, healthy lifestyle changes such as consistently sound nutritional choices and healthful exercise habits can contribute to the complete reversal of type 2 diabetes in the earlier stages of this dreadful disease process. This is an example of how poor nutrition can result in the development of a disease process. It is also an example of how dietary changes and a regular exercise habit can provoke the remission of a disease process.

To observe National Nutrition Month, an individual can choose to utilize the hash tag #NationalNutritionMonth when posting on various social media outlets (National Day Calendar, 2019). Persons can also observe National Nutrition Month by making healthful alterations to their diets and exercise routines to optimize their health statuses, as well as openly discussing their healthier lifestyle changes to the people in their lives.

REFERENCES

Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. (2019). National Nutrition Month. Retrieved from https://www.eatright.org/food/resources/national-nutrition-month/national-nutrition-month

National Day Calendar. (2019). National Nutrition Month – March. Retrieved from https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-nutrition-month-march/

The month of March happens to be National Professional Social Worker Month. Moreover, since this website contains a mixed bag of posts that pertain mostly to healthcare-oriented topics, a piece devoted to Social Worker Month seemed very timely as well as respectful to this awesome, underrated profession. After all, a large number of social workers are currently employed in the healthcare sector.

Social workers are found working in healthcare facilities such as hospitals, clinics and nursing homes across the U.S. Also, many social workers function in an autonomous manner as licensed clinical social workers. A licensed clinical social worker is a clinician who assesses, diagnoses and treats mental, psychological, behavioral health, social and emotional problems either as an employee of a company or in a private practice.

Since a vast number of social workers permeate the healthcare field in many different ways, Social Worker Month deserves an honorable mention on this site by way of a post of its own. In the midst of the chaos that regularly takes place in the medical field, social workers are the professionals who can calm the environment back down with their expertise, fund of knowledge and creative ways of offering practical assistance.

Here is a terse history on the origins of Social Worker Month. According to St. Olaf College (2012), the White House had officially designated the month of March as National Professional Social Work Month way back in 1984. In other words, Social Worker Month has been recognized in an official manner and on a national scale for more than three and a half decades.

By way of observing National Professional Social Work Month, the public can help shine the spotlight onto the indispensable role that social workers continually fill to address peoples’ personal and social issues. Social workers surely deserve the ultimate level of recognition because they assist people in all walks of life and in many different stages of life by providing education, resources and training.

Per the National Association of Social Workers (2019), National Professional Social Work Month provides a large scale opportunity for social workers across the U.S., as well as their colleagues, to shine the light onto the noble profession of social work and point out the significant contributions they make to American society. Thus, this month is the optimal time to recognize the nearly 700,000 social workers in this country.

Every year since 1984, each Social Worker Month has been assigned a defining theme on which to base activities and recognition. For the year of 2019, the theme for Social Work Month is “Social Workers: Elevate Social Work.” This year, social workers and members of the general public can make their contributions to Social Work Month by respectfully elevating the profession of social work in as many ways as they possibly can.

There are a number of interesting ways to do one’s part to elevate the professional field of social work. The following ideas on ways of elevating the social work profession have been listed below:

Inform the public about the multifaceted role of the social worker to ensure people know about the plenitude of things that they do.
Make young people ages 14 to 24 aware about the possibility of social work as a career pathway to consider and potentially enter.
Actively network with other professionals at conferences and conventions to promote unity. Many people have heard the olden adage that reads, “United we stand and divided we fall.” Well, it has the ring of truth.
Use social media outlets in an astute way to spread the word regarding the purpose and mission of National Professional Social Worker Month.

REFERENCES

National Association of Social Workers, North Carolina Chapter. (2019). Social Work Month 2019. Retrieved from https://www.socialworkers.org/Events/Campaigns/Social-Work-Month

St. Olaf College. (2012). The History of Social Work Month. Retrieved from https://wp.stolaf.edu/socialwork/the-history-of-social-work-month/

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