Kentucky Voices for Health Applauds Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Agenda
Dec 2nd, 2010
Kentucky Voices for Health Applauds Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Agenda
Kentucky Voices for Health is committed to making prevention a priority for Kentucky’s health policies and programs. The coalition commends the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for releasing the nation’s new 10-year goals and objectives for health promotion and disease prevention.
The Healthy People initiative has been committed to improving the quality of our Nation’s health by producing a framework for public health prevention priorities and actions for the past 30 years. Over 2.7 million cases of seven common chronic diseases — cancers, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, mental disorders, and pulmonary conditions — have been reported in Kentucky. These conditions shorten lives, reduce quality of life, and create considerable burden for caregivers.
“Healthy People is the nation’s roadmap for better health, providing a vision for improving both the quantity and quality of life for all Americans,” stated Jodi Mitchell, Executive Director of Kentucky Voices for Health. “These national objectives should serve as a guide to improving the health of all Kentuckians. Our challenge and opportunity is to avoid preventable diseases from occurring in the first place.”
Healthy People 2020 is the product of an extensive stakeholder feedback process that is unparalleled in government and health. It integrates input from public health and prevention experts, a wide range of federal, state and local government officials, a consortium of more than 2,000 organizations, and perhaps most importantly, the public. More than 8,000 comments were considered in drafting a comprehensive set of Healthy People 2020 objectives. Based on this input, a number of new topic areas are included in the new initiative, including:
· Adolescent Health
· Blood Disorders and Blood Safety
· Dementias, including Alzheimer’s Disease
· Early and Middle Childhood
· Genomics
· Global Health
· Health-Related Quality of Life and Well-Being
· Healthcare-Associated Infections
· Older Adults
· Preparedness
· Sleep Health
· Social Determinants of Health
Healthy People also issued a special challenge, “myHealthyPeople,” to encourage developers to create easy-to-use applications for professionals who are working with the new national health objectives and state- and community-level health data. Health information technology allows for creative approaches to helping communities track their progress on meeting Healthy People objectives and will assist in developing a health improvement agenda.
For more information, see www.healthypeople.gov. The Kentucky State Coordinator for Healthy People 2020 is Dr. Torrie Harris, Director of the Office of Health Equity at the KY Department of Public Health, torrie.harris@ky.gov.
