North Country Health Consortium in action

Community & Public Health

CPH includes the following services and programs:

For additional information about any of these programs, please contact us:
North Country Health Consortium, Inc.
262 Cottage St, Suite 230
Littleton NH 03561
603-259-3700 (phone)
603-444-0945 (fax)

Community & Public Health

It takes a village (or several) to...

  • monitor our community health status,
  • diagnose and investigate local health problems and hazards,
  • inform, educate, and empower people about health issues,
  • mobilize community partnerships to solve health problems,
  • develop policies and plans to support health efforts,
  • link people to needed health services,
  • assist in developing competent healthcare workforce,
  • evaluate for effective, accessible and quality health services,
  • research new and innovative solutions for local health issues, and

...build a model Local Public Health System.

The communities of Northern Grafton and Coos Counties of Northern New Hampshire are embarking on a mission... local businesses, health and social service providers, public safety and municipal officials, religious and civic organizations, and schools are working together to create an improved local public health system addressing:

  • emergency preparedness and communication systems;
  • health care access for everyone;
  • adult education and job skill training; and
  • preventive healthcare and substance abuse awareness

About Public Health

Mission: To maintain and improve the health and well-being of New Hampshire residents.
The goal of public health is to maintain and improve the health and well-being of all New Hampshire residents. Public health succeeds when the span of healthy life and the quality of life is increased.

We define public health as the system - the organizations and people, their resources and their methods of operation and communication - which contributes to and supports the health and well-being of New Hampshire residents. There is no part of daily life that doesn't contribute to an individual's general health and well-being.

Vision: The health and well-being of New Hampshire residents is the collective and shared responsibility of a partnership of public, nonprofit and private organizations.

Specifically, public health seeks to:

  • Prevent epidemics and the spread of disease
  • Protect against environmental hazards
  • Prevent injuries
  • Promote and encourage healthy behaviors and mental health
  • Respond to disasters and assist communities in recovery
  • Assure the quality and accessibility of health services

10 Essential Services

Download the 10 Essential Services of Public Health [PDF, 15 KB]
Public health serves communities and individuals within them by providing an array of essential services. Many of these services are invisible to the public. Typically, the public only becomes aware of the need for public health services when a problem develops (e.g., an epidemic occurs). The practice of public health becomes the list of "essential services."

Monitor health status to identify and solve community health problems: This service includes accurate diagnosis of the community¹s health status through timely collection, analysis, and publication of information on access, utilization, costs, and outcomes of personal health services.

Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community: This service includes epidemiologic identification of emerging health threats and technical capacity for epidemiologic investigation of disease outbreaks and patterns of chronic disease and injury.

Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues: This service involves social marketing and targeted media public communication to reinforce health promotion messages and programs.

Mobilize community partnerships and action to identify and solve health problems: This service involves skilled coalition-building to draw upon the full range of potential human and material resources in the cause of community health.

Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts: This service requires development of codes, regulations and legislation to guide the practice of public health.

Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety: This service involves full enforcement of sanitary codes, especially in the food industry; full protection of drinking water supplies; enforcement of clean air standards; timely follow-up of hazards, preventable injuries, and exposure-related diseases identified in occupational and community settings; monitoring quality of medical services (e.g. laboratory, nursing homes, and home health care); and timely review of new drug, biologic, and medical device applications.

Link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable: This service includes assuring effective entry for socially disadvantaged people into a coordinated system of clinical care.

Assure a competent public and personal health care workforce: This service includes education and training for personnel to meet the needs for public and personal health service and efficient processes for licensure of professionals and certification of facilities.

Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services: This service calls for ongoing evaluation of health programs to assess program effectiveness.

Research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems: This service includes continuous linkage with appropriate institutions of higher learning to conduct needed health services research.

Health Improvement Process

Public health seeks to continuously improve health and well-being by a process which starts with the identification and prioritization of health problems in the community (assessment). Information about the health status of the population is used to analyze the health issue to understand the contributing factors and how they operate in the community, assess resources available for health improvement efforts, define priorities and develop effective policies and plans to improve health status (policy development).

In response to identified problems, the community develops evidenced-based strategies to address problems, establishes a collaborative approach, and implements improvement strategies (assurance). Ongoing monitoring of health status information enables us to assess trends and evaluate the effectiveness of programs and interventions in improving our health status.

Links to Related Sites

American Public Health Association (APHA)
800 I Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001-3710
Phone: 202-777-2494

Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)
1275 K Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20005-4006
Phone 202-371-9090 ext. 242

National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)
1100 17th Street, NW, 2nd Floor
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-783-5550 ext 206

National Association of Local Boards of Health (NALBOH)
1840 East Gypsy Lane Road
Bowling Green, OH 43402
Phone: 419-353-7714

Public Health Foundation
1220 L Street, NW, Suite 350
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-898-5600

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Public Health Performance Program
1600 Clifton Rd.
Atlanta, GA 30333
Phone: 404-639-3311

Resources

Background information and useful tools are provided for the following relevant public health issues. Resources include links to key websites, publications and other tools.

If you have a resource you would like to share with us, please email us at nhphninfo@nhphn.org.

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