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| Essential Public Health Functions |  Public Health in American |  Public Health in Oklahoma County |

The Oklahoma City-County Board of Health supports the leadership of the OCCHD in the development of health standards and for the definition of appropriate prevention strategies to promote and protect health. Oklahoma City-County Board of Health believes that OCCHD services should focus on improving the health status of the population, as well as factors that lead to these events, the availability of health and community resources, and the community perceptions of the unmet health needs and issues. OCCHD must be able to work with a variety of agencies and providers to assure the availability and provision of quality health services, and resources must be allocated to the following list of essential public health services created by the Institute of Medicine, Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health.

1. Assess the health status at the local level to identify and address community health problems.

2. Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community.

3. Mobilize community partnerships to identify and solve health problems and to respond to disasters.

4. Provide leadership for planning and policy development to address priority needs, taking into account scientific, economic and political factors.

5. Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues in order to promote positive health beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.
6. Link people to needed population based, personal health services and other community and family support services, and assure the availability, access, and acceptability by enhancing system capacity including directly supportive services.
7. Promote and enforce laws, regulations, and standards that protect health and ensure safety of the population.
8. Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population based health services.
9. Assure the capacity and competency of the public health work force to effectively address health needs.
10. Conduct scientific investigations and support demonstration projects to gain new insights and innovative solutions to health problems.

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