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ATTACHMENT 7 <br />Health - Healthy Carolinians Coordinator <br />and Health Education Project Manager <br />Goal: "1'o improve the health and well being of all Orange County citizens through health <br />promotion, prevention and education. To this end health promotion, prevention and <br />education programs work to: <br />^ Improve the quality of life and well being. <br />^ Facilitate individuals and communities to practice healthy lifestyles. <br />^ Reduce premature death and disability.. <br />o Reduce health disparities among community members. <br />^ Encourage appropriate use of the health care system. <br />^ Promote optimum use of scarce health resources. <br />Healthy Carolinians Initiative: <br />In support of the goal of improving the health of Orange County citizens, the Orange County <br />Healthy Carolinians Initiative is a county-wide collaborative planning and implementation <br />process. There are well over 40 organizations or agencies involved in this effort. <br />As a result of the community-wide assessment and community-wide priority setting process, <br />the Healthy Carolinians Initiative established high priority areas that need to be addressed to <br />improve the overall health of Orange County citizens. These areas fall into two broad <br />categories: <br />^ Preventive services - This embraces goals for reducing the occurrence of cardiovascular <br />disease, cancer, substance abuse, and injuries by altering or improving the delivery of <br />preventive services. <br />^ Needs of children - This embraces goals for preventing teen pregnancy, child abuse, and <br />substance abuse (tobacco, alcohol, and illegal substances). <br />While often the objectives chosen by the community in Healthy Carolinians matches Health <br />Department priorities, such as the match between preventing child abuse chosen by Healthy <br />Carolinians and the Health Department's Intensive Home Visiting Program, there are times <br />when the match is not so clear. An example of this is the needed emphasis on sexually <br />transmitted disease education by the Health Department that is not a Healthy Carolinians <br />priority except indirectly. <br />Overview of Current Health Education at the Health Department: <br />The Health Department's current health promotion, prevention and education efforts are <br />focused on carrying out mandated programs. These include specific education plans and <br />programs in the following areas: <br />15 <br />^ HIV and Aids education <br />^ Syphilis education and prevention <br />