Areas of Public Health Responsibility and
Essential Local Public Health Activities

Areas of Public Health Responsibility

  1. Assure an Adequate Local Public Health Infrastructure
  2. Promote Healthy Communities and Healthy Behaviors
  3. Prevent the Spread of Infectious Disease
  4. Protect Against Environmental Health Hazards
  5. Prepare for and Respond to Disasters, and Assist
    Communities in Recovery
  6. Assure the Quality and Accessibility of Health Services

Area 1: Assure an Adequate Local Public Health Infrastructure

  1. Maintain a local governance structure for public health, consistent with state statutes.
  2. Assess and monitor community health needs and assets on an ongoing basis for each of the six areas of public health responsibility in this framework.
  3. Identify community health and prevention priorities every five years with input from community members and key partners, including communities of color, tribal representatives and special populations, ensuring that community wisdom and cultural diversity are used to understand and interpret qualitative and quantitative information.
  4. Every five years, develop an action plan with evaluation measures and recommended policy options to address essential local activities and local priorities.
  5. Convene community members and key community partners, including communities of color, tribal representatives and people with special needs to build community collaborations, determine roles, identify and leverage community assets/resources and participate in research that benefits the community, as resources allow.
  6. Advocate for policy changes needed to improve the health of populations and individuals.
  7. Lead or participate in efforts to foster healthy physical, economic, and social environments (e.g., participate in community improvement and development decisions).
  8. Provide annual information to MDH to evaluate progress toward statewide outcomes and local priorities, and to meet federal reporting requirements.
  9. Meet personnel requirements for the CHS Administrator and the Medical Consultant.
  10. Designate, recruit, train and retain local public health staff so that every local agency has appropriate expertise in each of the six areas of public health responsibility.
  11. Recruit local public health staff who reflect the cultural and ethnic communities served.
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Area 2: Promote Healthy Communities and Healthy Behaviors

  1. Engage the community on an on-going basis to promote healthy communities and behaviors through activities including but not limited to (a) assessment, prioritization and developing action plans, (b) coalition building, (c) community readiness, (d) empowerment, and (e) decision making.
  2. Based on community assessment, resources, and capacity, include in the five-year action plan: the promotion of healthy communities; healthy behaviors (e.g., physical activity, nutrition, tobacco, alcohol and other drug use, unintentional pregnancy, HIV/AIDS/STD); mental health; maternal and child health; and the prevention of injury and violence.
  3. Conduct evidence-based, culturally sensitive programs, and disseminate information on services and resources to promote healthy behaviors and communities (e.g., physical activity, nutrition, tobacco, alcohol and other drug use, unintentional pregnancy, HIV/AIDS/STD), mental health, maternal and child health, and/or the prevention of injury and violence.
  4. Inform and educate different audiences, e.g., general public, providers and policy leaders, about healthy communities and population health status.
  5. Support the development and enforcement of policies, and encourage cultural norms that promote healthy communities.
  6. Participate in decisions about community improvement and development to promote healthy behaviors and communities.
  7. Promote healthy growth, development, aging, and management of chronic diseases across the lifespan.
  8. Identify and address the needs of vulnerable populations, e.g.: high-risk pregnant women, mothers, and children; the frail elderly; persons with mental illness; and people experiencing health disparities.
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Area 3: Prevent the Spread of Infectious Disease

  1. Work with medical providers and other community partners to facilitate disease reporting and address problems with compliance.
  2. Assess immunization levels and practice standards, and promote/provide age appropriate immunization delivery.
  3. Assess infectious disease risks in jurisdiction, apprise community of risks and assure appropriate interventions.
  4. Based on surveillance data, develop strategies and plans to detect and respond to infectious disease problems and outbreaks within jurisdiction/region.
  5. Assist and/or conduct infectious disease investigations with MDH.
  6. When surveillance detects an imminent threat of infectious disease outbreak or epidemic, implement appropriate local disease control programs, including but not limited to mass treatment clinics, mass immunizations clinics, and isolation and quarantine.
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Area 4: Protect Against Environmental Health Hazards

  1. Provide the general public and policy leaders with information on health risk, health status, and environmental health needs in the community as well as information on policies and programs regarding environmental health threats to humans.
  2. Identify the federal, state, tribal or local agencies with regulatory authority and bring people together to address compliance with public health standards.
  3. Develop public health nuisance policies and plans, and assure enforcement of public health nuisance requirements.
  4. Monitor the community for significant and emerging environmental health threats, and develop strategies to address these threats.
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Area 5: Prepare for and Respond to Disasters, and Assist Communities in Recovery

  1. Provide leadership for public health preparedness activities in the community by developing and maintaining relationships with community partners at the local, regional, and state levels.
  2. Conduct or participate in ongoing assessments to identify potential public health hazards and the capacity to respond.
  3. Develop, exercise and periodically review threats to the public's health.
  4. Participate in surveillance and monitoring activities to detect patterns of unusual events; implement appropriate actions.
  5. Participate in all hazard response and recovery.
  6. Develop and maintain a system of public health workforce readiness, deployment and response.
  7. Develop and implement a system to provide timely, accurate and appropriate information in a variety of languages for elected officials and the public, the media, and community partners in the event of all types of public health emergencies.
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Area 6: Assure the Quality and Accessibility of Health Services

  1. Identify gaps in the quality and accessibility of health care services.
  2. Based on the on-going community assessment, inform and educate the public and providers on issues related to the quality and accessibility of health care services in the community.
  3. Lead efforts to establish, maintain, and/or improve access to personal health services, including culturally competent preventive and health promotion services, as identified in the planning process.
  4. Promote activities to identify and link people to needed services.
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