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Advancing Public Health

 

What is Public Health?
Georgia’s public health system has protected and improved the lives of Georgians since it was first created in 1875. Our system aids in stopping the spread of infectious diseases, promotes good health and manages chronic conditions, and helps ensure that our food is safe to eat and our water it safe to drink. In addition, public health protects our entire population by responding to natural and man-made disasters, conducting inspections of systems that impact our health, and preventing unnecessary deaths by encouraging our citizens to make healthy, safe choices. It is the system that ensures that the conditions are optimal for all Georgians to be healthy. For more information, click here.

A System in Crisis
Today, Georgia’s public health system is threatened in ways never before seen. Severe budget cuts, the recession, and significant population growth have placed an added burden on a system that is already teetering. Health needs in Georgia exceed those of most states, yet we spend less than $20 per person per year – about a nickel a day – and rank near the bottom in state support for public health. For more information, click here.

What can be done?
In October 2009, Healthcare Georgia Foundation launched a campaign to develop state and local leadership capacity, knowledge, and skills to advocate for effective public health policy in Georgia.
For more information, click here.

 

 Partner Up! For Public Health. Together We Can Do Better is part of a multifaceted effort to rebuild Georgia’s public health system. The campaign seeks to position public health with greater autonomy, authority, accountability, resources, leadership and workforce capacity. To create a 21st century public health system, the campaign will:

  • Build local advocacy for public health programs;
  • Inform state and local decisions regarding public health resource allocation;
  • Strengthen individual and organizational leadership at state and local levels
  • Facilitate collaboration across professions, associations, and organizations in support of public health; and
  • Promote awareness of the need for, and benefits from, an investment in public health.

Whether conservative or liberal, urban or rural, rich or poor, all Georgians have a stake in public health because it saves lives and money. Re-investing in and rebuilding our public health system will help stretch the state’s budget in the long term by heading off high-cost treatments for chronic conditions that worsen when untreated. It also will enhance state revenue by keeping tax-paying bread winners in the workforce and encouraging new business development.

Important Resources:

2009 Annual Report: Advancing Public Health in Georgia
To View or Download, click here. (PDF)

HealthVoices: Together We Can Do Better: Creating a 21st Century Public Health System for Georgians
To View or Download, click here. (PDF)

  

From the Public Health News Bureau:

Campaign Funding Partners:

  1. The University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism’s Public Health News Bureau
  2. The Georgia Public Health Association
  3. The Hayslett Group
  4. Mathews and Maxwell
  5. Georgians for a Healthy Future
  6. Georgia SOPHE
  7. UGA Survey Research Center
  8. Georgia Budget and Policy Institute
  9. HealthTecdl
  10. Philip Graitcer
  11. Avatar Communications
  12. Times 3 Communications
  13. Joan Kimble

About Partner Up! For Public Health. Together we can do better.
Partner Up! for Public Health is a statewide advocacy campaign funded by Healthcare Georgia Foundation and designed to advance public health in Georgia. The campaign was launched in October 2009 as part of a multifaceted effort to rebuild a public health system that has been decimated by budget cuts in recent years.