Oral

Building and supporting community environments that make healthy choices easy and affordable is critical to helping people achieve and maintain good health. Access to, availability and quality of transportation, education, housing, environment, employment and clinical or community services all affect health. Public policy is a strong tool for prevention because policy shapes the environment in which we live, work and play. To eliminate inequalities in health and influence the risk factors that cause disease, policies must address the economic, social and environmental determinants of health. The types of actions needed require that individuals, communities, industry, academia, and a broad array of sectors and stakeholders collectively respond to achieve improvements in health and quality of life. Prioritizing strategies proven to work, that make the most efficient use of existing resources, can be sustained over time, and have the greatest impact on the largest number of people is key to realizing health improvements. Different models, processes and collaborative approaches at the international, federal, state and local levels have been used to prioritize and focus prevention. This session will highlight the following efforts: 1) The National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council is charged with development and implementation of the National Prevention Strategy. A national effort chaired by the Surgeon General, involving seventeen federal departments, and working with partners across the country in both the public and private sectors, the National Prevention Strategy identifies Recommendations within 4 cross-cutting Strategic Direction and 7 focused priority areas. 2) California’s Health in All Policies (HiAP) Task Force engaged nineteen state agencies and departments, including the California Department of Public Health, to identify and implement policies, programs, and strategies to improve the health of Californians while achieving State sustainability goals, and 3) New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, has successfully led “Take Care New York” a strategy that prioritizes and focused public policy efforts as key tools in improving health. Cross sector collaboration and policy domains represent opportunities for achieving healthy communities and sustainable improvements in population health. The models presented and lessons learned can be useful for other federal, state or local agencies aiming to address health at multiple levels.

Session Objectives: Describe how improvements in health and wellness can be achieved and sustained through policy and systems change. List the advantages/facilitators and drawbacks/barriers to implementing a health in all policies approach. Articulate roles and approaches for taking a public policy approach to health for federal and nonfederal public and private, governmental and non-governmental sectors. Describe ways in which public health and other stakeholders have implemented policy changes to improve health outcomes.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH) , Masters Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES)