Story in Brief
Health care costs are a rising portion of any county's budget because employee health issues cause poor performance or limit the employee's attendance. The UGA Extension Family and Consumer Sciences agent in Telfair County approached the problem with a two-prong plan. The first part of the plan included cardiovascular and other chronic disease education. The plan also included cardiovascular health screenings. The screening aimed at not only screening county employees, but also providing them with the educational materials that could help reduce or manage any cardiovascular problems. Tens employees attended the screening. The agent planned and taught How to Prevent a Broken Heart: What You Need to Know to Prevent and Manage Cardiovascular Disease to county employees. Then the agent followed up with another program entitled Let's Get Physical a few months later. The two programs were attended by 39 county employees.