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Healthy People Home > Healthy People 2020 > Secretary's Advisory Committee > Phase I Report > Appendix 2 |
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Appendix 2. The Advisory Committee members believe that Healthy People 2020 should be introduced by a statement of values that explains what the initiative is about. An explanatory narrative is an important element of the Healthy People 2020 framework, because as some have noted in the past, "a set of objectives does not a story tell." The Advisory Committee offers the following text as a suggested introduction to the Healthy People 2020 objectives themselves. The values of a nation are reflected in its willingness and ability to secure better health, well-being, and vitality for all. Healthy People 2020 establishes national goals and objectives for policy, programs, and activities to address the major health challenges facing our country today; it also seeks to assure conditions in which people can be healthy, both now and for generations to come. Goals for the year 2020 have been created with the public in mind as their ultimate beneficiary. Yet Healthy People 2020 goals and objectives are not only meant to be relevant to the American public; they must also lead by example, in keeping with our position of citizenship in the global community. Over the next decade, Healthy People 2020 must inspire with the spirit of its reach; encourage with its sense of the possible; compel actions by policy makers, professionals, and community members at multiple levels of society; highlight the determinants of health; and lay bare the unacceptable. This initiative envisions a day when preventable death, illness, injury, and disability, as well as health disparities, will be eliminated. This transformation will occur by changing our thinking about health, examining root causes and social determinants, and directing more interventions to address the primary, causal factors that affect health. Healthy People 2020 is a national health agenda that communicates a vision and a strategy for the nation. It should touch the lives of all Americans. Healthy People must help individuals to achieve wellness; promote healthy places and environments for future generations; and encourage responsive systems that have the capacity to forge bold new directions and address pressing needs. Through these actions, Healthy People 2020 can advance the health of all by preventing adverse health events. With scientific insights and lessons learned over three decades, Healthy People 2020 reflects a deepened understanding that family, social, economic, and environmental factors are primary, interrelated determinants of health. Yet the public health system has not yet fully marshaled strategies that have been shown to facilitate healthier futures by strengthening families, neighborhoods, and communities, and improving housing and education policies and programs. Promoting healthful social conditions can ensure that all members of society—especially those who are often neglected—benefit from the same basic rights, security, and opportunities. This nation has within its reach the ability to assure that all residents have equal access to quality public health, healthcare, and essential community services that preserve and protect health. Our vision for a healthy nation can only be achieved when it includes practical yet innovative steps to create opportunities for all. Within this broad vision for health, Healthy People offers specific goals and objectives for the year 2020. Achieving them will require many sectors of our society to become broadly and deeply engaged. Health is more than a product of disease control. Moreover, health promotion and disease prevention are not exclusively the tasks of one group of professionals or decision- makers. The health and vitality of this nation depend on building awareness and skills, not only among health professionals, but among families, educators, engineers, city planners, social workers, economists, business people, community leaders, transportation experts, psychologists, the media, and many others. America needs strong leadership, diverse partnerships, and commitment to putting people at the center of public policy, and creating programs and services that meet their needs. The goals and objectives set forth in Healthy People 2020 are prepared with the input of public health professionals, policy makers, healthcare professionals, teachers, mothers, fathers, and members of our communities who believe that these objectives are critical for the future health and well-being of our country. Healthy People 2020 goals are intended to be inspirational, yet achievable within the near or longer term. Achieving them will require the commitment and energy of all. If the creativity of the American public health system and its partners can be drawn to the task, the promise of the Healthy People initiative will benefit every man, woman, and child in the nation. This is our vision, our opportunity, and our obligation. Continue to Appendix 3. Timeline of the Advisory
Committee's Efforts |
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