What is Public Health?

• Health of the population as a whole:
  • Monitored
  • Regulated
  • Promoted
• Public health is the science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities
  • Promoting healthy lifestyles, researching disease and injury, prevention, detecting and responding to infectious diseases
• A large part of public health is promoting health equity, focusing on disparities and addressing social determinants of health, quality and accessibility.

What do Public Health Professionals do?

• Prevent epidemics and the spread of disease
• Protects against environmental hazards
• Prevents injuries
• Promotes and encourages healthy behaviors
• Responds to disasters and assists communities in recovery
• Assures the quality and accessibility of health services

10 Essential Services of Public Health

1. Monitor health status to identify and solve community health problems
2. Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community
3. Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues
4. Mobilize community partnerships and action to identify and solve health problems
5. Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts
6. Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety
7. Link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable
8. Assure competent public and personal health care workforce
9. Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services
10. Research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems

3 Buckets of Public Health Prevention

Assist with National Voluntary Accreditation for Health Departments

• Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB)
  • National accrediting body for public health departments
  • Established in 2007
  • Program launched in September 2011
    • www.phaboard.org
    • www.cdc.gov/stltpublichealth/accreditation
• Co-funded by CDC and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Field driven―guided by practitioner input and testing

The goal of a voluntary national accreditation program is to improve and protect the public’s health by advancing the quality and performance of state, tribal, local, and territorial public health departments