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2008 Public Health Action Plan Update: Celebrating Our
First Five Years
Know These Key Messages
The following key messages were developed by the Communications
Implementation Group to clearly communicate the primary goals and objectives
of the National Forum, both internally and externally. Priority target
audiences include current and potential National Forum members, groups that
influence the public (e.g., health care professionals and journalists), key
decision makers, and policy makers from both private and governmental
sectors.
During the National Forum’s April 2007 meeting in Washington, D.C., the
messages were tested in three focus groups facilitated for the National
Forum by staff of Fleishman Hilliard Worldwide Communications. The messages
were reviewed, revised and approved by the Coordinating Board for use in the
National Forum’s communication materials.
- The National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention (National
Forum) is made up of more than 80 individual organizations that
collaborate to provide national leadership for those committed to
building a heart-healthy and stroke-free society.
- More than 80 national and international organizations from every
sector of heart disease and stroke prevention are represented in the
National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention.
- A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke—a
national plan to chart a course for the prevention of heart disease and
stroke—was developed, and the National Forum’s purpose is to provide
leadership for this plan.
- Each year the National Forum assembles the world’s leading experts to
discuss developments in heart disease and stroke prevention and gain
valuable information in community intervention, communication, and
research strategies.
- The National Forum has seven implementation groups that carry out its
work:
-
Action Priorities: identifies effective policies in cardiovascular
health promotion.
- Communications: communicates the urgency and importance of preventing
heart disease and stroke.
-
Monitoring and Evaluation: monitors the burden of heart disease and
stroke and measures progress in prevention and treatment.
- Organizational Capacity: builds the capacity of federal, state, and
local public health agencies to address heart disease and stroke.
- Policy Research: develops a comprehensive research agenda and fosters
translation of research into practice.
- Public Health Leadership: fosters the necessary leadership and
partnerships for a comprehensive public health strategy to prevent heart
disease and stroke.
- Global and Regional Partnerships: engages regional and global partners
to mobilize resources in heart disease and stroke prevention and
treatment.
-
The National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention brings
together expertise from the most respected and influential organizations
and individuals to address heart disease and stroke, leading causes of
death and disability in the United States and the world.
-
A Public Health Action Plan to Prevent Heart Disease and Stroke
provides health practitioners and policy makers with a framework for
developing a health care system that equally supports treatment and
prevention.
- The founding organizations of the National Forum are the American
Heart Association, the Association of State and Territorial Health
Officials, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In
addition, the forum represents organizations involved in
Advocacy
Faith
Academia
Policy
Public and private health care.
- Each year the National Forum assembles the nation’s leading experts to
discuss developments in heart disease and stroke prevention and to gain
valuable information in community intervention, communication, and
research strategies.
- There are proven strategies to prevent and manage heart disease and
stroke, but these are not universally applied. We must act now to put
them into practice. The National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke
Prevention is committed to working with partner organizations to put
these strategies into practice.
- Heart disease and stroke are the nation’s leading causes of death and
are among the leading causes of disability. When final figures are
available, in the United States alone, the cost of heart disease and
stroke is projected to be more than $400 billion for 2007.
- More than 910,000 Americans die of heart disease every year, yet heart
disease is largely preventable.
- Less than 3% of state health department budgets are dedicated to heart
disease and stroke prevention.
- Despite gains in recent years, unless we take action now the number of
victims and health care expenses related to heart disease and stroke
will escalate.
- The National Forum addresses the Healthy People 2010 (HP 2010) goals.
Strategies already exist to achieve all of them:
- Prevention of risk factors (e.g., by increasing physical activity,
improving nutrition, and reducing tobacco use and exposure to tobacco
smoke).
- Detection and treatment of risk factors (e.g., through screening
programs and effective care by health providers).
- Early identification and treatment of heart attacks and strokes (e.g.,
by organizing know-the-symptoms campaigns).
- Prevention of recurrent cardiovascular events.
- The National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention includes
nearly every national organization involved in heart disease and stroke
prevention and management and is a source of knowledge and expertise on
the prevention of heart disease and stroke.
- We have knowledge from decades of research and experience that can be
used to inform sound policies to prevent heart disease and stroke.
Because it represents nearly every national organization involved in
research on heart disease and stroke, the National Forum is a single
source for knowledge and expertise on these two health conditions.
- The National Forum is also a single source of information on how to put
this knowledge to use as the basis for action to achieve the HP 2010
goals.
- Although many National Forum members have research expertise, such
expertise is not a prerequisite for membership in the National Forum.
- Membership in the National Forum for Heart for Heart Disease and
Stroke Prevention is an effective way for your organization to add your
voice to the national call for urgent action to prevent heart disease
and stroke. Collaboratively, we can make the case to the nation and the
world that heart disease and stroke can be prevented.
- The National Forum works with its regional and global partners to
ensure all members reap the full benefits of sharing knowledge and
experience in heart disease and stroke prevention.
- The National Forum provides a vehicle to gain visibility for your
organization’s efforts to prevent heart disease and stroke.
- The National Forum’s Regional and Global Collaborations Implementation
Group produced an inventory of international programs and policies for
cardiovascular health.
- The National Forum has five priority areas for policy and legislative
focus: 1) risk factors, 2) chain of survival, 3) quality of care, 4)
disparities, and 5) support for heart disease and stroke prevention in
all 50 states and in U.S. territories.
- The National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention fosters
research on policies and programs aimed at preventing heart disease and
stroke. This research is focused especially on policies and programs at
the national, state, and community levels.
- The National Forum contributed to a research article “Essential
Features of a Surveillance System to Support the Prevention and
Management of Heart Disease and Stroke,” which was published in the
January 2007 issue of Circulation.
- The National Forum sponsored a state-of–the-science conference
(Evaluation of Policy and Environmental Change for Heart Disease and
Stroke Prevention) in August 2007 to convene a group of international
experts engaged in evaluation research.
- A priority for the National Forum is to address the disparity among
groups in deaths and disabilities related to heart disease and stroke.
- Health disparities is one of five priority areas established by the
Action Priorities Implementation Group.
- Working through member organizations such as the Association of Black
Cardiologists and Association of State and Territorial Health Officials,
the National Forum focuses on promoting policies that address the
disparities in heart disease and stroke mortality in areas or
populations with limited access to health care.
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Page last reviewed: August 18, 2008
Page last modified: August 18, 2008
Content source: Division for Heart Disease and Stroke
Prevention,
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion |
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