Health departments offer resources for Asthma Awareness Month

The Livingston County Health Department is one of several agencies offering assistance during Asthma Awareness Month. (Photo Cynthia Grau/WJEZ)

By Cynthia Grau

PONTIAC – May is Asthma Awareness Month, and while there are several triggers and many treatments, there is no cure.

Linda Rhodes, health education and marketing director for the Livingston County Health Department, said there are ways her office can help people control their asthma symptoms.

“We’re very fortunate. We received some funding. It’s CDC dollars that came down to us from the Illinois Department of Public Health,” Rhodes explained. “One of the things we’re able to do is we’re able to go into peoples’ home and we’re able to do some trigger assessments – look around the house, find out is there a pillow cover or is there a water leak or is there something that can be changed? Can we change the cleaning products? So we come in, we spend about 45 minutes to an hour with the family and we kind of just walk through the house,”

For more information, call the health department at 815-844-7174.

Cynthia Grau can be reached at [email protected].

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year.  It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city.   Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University.   We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk.  Going to work every day for some people means…