The Office on Women’s Health was created in recognition of the fact that women and
girls have a unique stake in health care policy.
And in the 25 years since, OWH has proved to be an invaluable resource for women and
girls.
Since 1991, the HHS Office on Women’s Health has been tackling health issues affecting
women of all ages.
Working together…for all our lives.
It’s important that we think about the things that affect women throughout their lifetime.
We want to make sure that we think about girls and young teenagers.
What I think is most important about the work we do in the Office on Women’s Health with
girls is giving them that sense of power at a young age.
We give them the facts about STDs, about how to prevent them, and how to talk to important
adults, where to get information on healthcare services if you need that.
Before you go here, go here.
Recognizing the needs of moms is really important.
For many years the Office on Women’s Health has been advocating breastfeeding as the healthier
choice for women and their babies.
I decided to breastfeed because I knew it was the best choice for my baby.
One of the obstacles for women breastfeeding after they go back to work is that there wasn’t
workplace accommodation.
When nursing mothers return to work from maternity leave, they need an area that is not a bathroom
to express milk during their work period.
We approached 22 industries across the United States.
All kinds of folks have been able to figure out how to accommodate women to express milk.
It’s very important for women to have health and major programs from the Office on Women’s
Health especially for women after their reproductive years.
What’s it feel like when a woman’s having a heart attack?
In 2010 OWH launched Make The Call, Don’t Miss A Beat to highlight the seven symptoms
of a heart attack in women, and the need to phone for help.
Learn more at womenshealth.gov/heart attack.
We’ve actually seen a pretty big increase in calls to 9-1-1; when we started it was
about 50 percent of women and then it’s gone up to at least 65 to 70 percent.
In 2000 the Office on Women’s Health launched National Women’s Health Week to encourage
women to make their own health a priority.
It’s National Women’s Health Week.
It begins every Mother’s Day, and it’s a time for the whole week that we want to
encourage women to take care of themselves.
A big area of emphasis in our office has been violence against women.
We know that affects women across their lifespan for certain.
Another issue that affects women of all ages is HIV AIDS.
Hello my name is Michelle Anderson and I’ve been living with HIV for 15 years.
Women were really in the cross-hairs of the HIV epidemic.
The Office on Women’s Health actually conceptualized and launched the women and girls HIV AIDS
Awareness Day.
The National Women & Girls HIV-AIDS Awareness Day, we use to really encourage women and
girls to know about HIV, and to make sure that they know what their HIV status is.
If they’re positive, they use the proper medication, they can live long, productive,
happy lives.
The Office on Women’s Health has been able to accomplish bringing together partners and
leaders, stakeholders - that no one could have imagined.
We work with all the national Hispanic health professional associations, and I think it
adds to the Office on Women’s Health to have us there, just beating the drum with
them.
The Office on Women’s Health helped to develop a phenomenal program in the mid-1990s called
the Center of Excellence in Women’s Health.
And by the time the program ended in about 2007, there were nearly 50 different centers
of various types throughout the United States.
It was invigorating, exciting, and helped to develop a network of folks interested in
women's health across the United States that really had not existed before.
The Office on Women’s Health needs to continue to make girls and women healthier for the
future.
Congratulations to the Office on Women’s Health for being a national leader in advancing
the health of women and girls.
I so look forward to seeing how OWH moves us all closer to this goal in the next 25
years.
(applause)