HHS supports strategies to promote healthy behaviors to reduce the occurrence and disparities in preventable injury, illness, and death. The Department develops, communicates, and disseminates information to improve health literacy about the benefits of healthy behaviors. HHS leverages resources, partnerships, and collaborations to support healthy behaviors that improve health conditions and reduce disparities in health outcomes. HHS also advance and applies research and data insights to inform evidence-based prevention, intervention, and policy approaches to address disparities in preventable injury, illness, and death. Below is a selection of strategies HHS is implementing.
In the context of HHS, this Strategic Plan adopts the definition of underserved populations listed in Executive Order 13985: Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities through the Federal Government to refer to “populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, who have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life”; this definition includes individuals who belong to underserved communities that have been denied such treatment, such as Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality. Individuals may belong to more than one underserved community and face intersecting barriers.
Contributing OpDivs and StaffDivs
AHRQ, ACL, ASFR, CDC, CMS, FDA, HRSA, IHS, NIH, OASH, and SAMHSA work to achieve this objective.
Strategies
Develop, communicate, and disseminate information to improve health literacy about the benefits of healthy behaviors
- Enhance maternal, infant, and child health through promotion of healthy dietary and physical activity patterns and guidelines while reducing exposure to contaminants and environmental risks, including foodborne pathogens and toxic elements in foods, during pregnancy and in early childhood, particularly in underserved populations.
- Develop targeted public awareness and education for youth and adults about the risks and dangers posed by tobacco, tobacco-like products, and alcohol, to discourage use, while promoting the availability of cessation programs and supports to minimize harm.
- Expand public awareness and education of mental and behavioral health services including the availability of services for prevention and treatment of substance use disorders.
- Support and improve the dissemination and accessibility of information and interventions related to physical activity, healthy eating, food deserts, food insecurity, nutrition, and nutrition labeling to reduce the incidence of related health conditions and chronic diseases.
- Educate the public on best practices and approaches for mitigating and reducing preventable injury in sports and other physical activities, such as concussions and related injuries, including preventable injury in children and youth sports.
- Ensure the public is informed and understands the prevalence, causes, and consequences of social, environmental, and biological risk factors, including related impacts on healthcare costs among underserved populations.
Leverage resources, partnerships, and collaborations to support healthy behaviors that improve health conditions and reduce disparities in health outcomes
- Maximize partnerships with states, community-based organizations, and healthcare organizations to improve safe opioid prescribing and reduce harm by leveraging naloxone distribution, syringe services programs, and integrated service delivery for co-occurring conditions.
- Promote partnerships to implement programs and outreach that focus on raising awareness and rapidly linking affected individuals to relevant care and treatment services, including persons harmed by substance use and persons with HIV.
- Collaborate with states, tribes, and community-based organizations to develop and implement prevention and intervention efforts aimed at addressing substance use challenges faced by adults and youth through evidence-based education and programs.
- Enhance collaborative efforts with states and community and faith-based organizations to raise awareness of mental health and substance use disorders and reduce barriers and increase access to effective prevention programs and treatments, including telemedicine, healthcare integration, and community- and school-based care.
- Support partnerships and collaborations to enhance the promotion of interpersonal and emotional skills among children, youth, and adolescents to prevent adverse childhood experiences, suicide, substance use, and youth violence in communities by supporting the implementation and evaluation of evidence-based programs, including interventions related to health promotion, socioemotional learning, and teen pregnancy.
- Partner with states, tribes, local, and territorial communities, including private and non-profit organizations, to expand tailored prevention education and interventions to reduce health disparities, focusing efforts in addressing disparities in injury, substance use and misuse, illness, morbidity, and mortality rates in underserved populations.
- Engage state level, regional, tribal, territorial, and local providers, programs, and organizations—including medical practitioners, Breastfeeding Coalitions, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)—to develop cultural competence training and education materials for healthcare providers who provide services to maternal, perinatal, and postpartum populations, and groups that have been economically and socially marginalized.
Apply research and data insights to inform evidence-based prevention, intervention, and policy approaches to address disparities in preventable injury, illness, and death
- Support, enhance, and coordinate research and surveillance efforts to improve identification of key trends and disparities in preventable injury, illness, and death at the national and sub-national levels to inform evidence-based interventions aimed at reducing health disparities.
- Advance health equity through regulatory efforts, where appropriate, and research efforts that utilize implementation science concepts and methods to better integrate effective, evidence-based interventions and actions to reduce substance use, tobacco use, obesity, and promote nutrition, blood pressure control, and physical activity across all populations.
- Support interdisciplinary and innovative research to enhance our understanding of how social, built, and natural environments affect the social determinants of health and inform culturally appropriate evidence-based treatments and supports to improve healthy behaviors in community settings for populations with health disparities.
- Leverage and promote partnerships and collaborations, including public-private partnerships, to support implementation science and research application in the development and implementation of prevention and intervention approaches.
- Promote research to effectively characterize and understand the interactions among the demographic, behavioral, lifestyle, social, cultural, economic, occupational, and environmental factors that influence healthy eating choices in diverse population groups.
