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North
Carolina 2010 Health Goals
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| Governor James B. Hunt outlined the
2010 Health Goals for North Carolina in his Executive Order No. 147.
This document lists the following Health Goals for 2010:
1. Increase the span of healthy life of the citizens of North Carolina;
2. Remove health disparities among the disadvantaged;
3. Promote access to preventive health services;
4. Protect the public’s health;
5. Foster positive and supportive living and working conditions
in our communities; and
6. Support individuals to develop the capacities and skills to achieve
healthy living.
These goals have served as a guide for developing the set of objectives
contained in this document. These goals are interrelated and build
a positive vision for health and safety for the Year 2010. They
describe a desirable future for North Carolina, a vision that leaves
no one out.
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| 1.
Increase the span of healthy life of the citizens of North Carolina |
This goal aligns with the national goal in Healthy
People 2010. It continues the initial North Carolina goal set for
the Year 2000. A recent document from the Division of Aging, Department
of Health and Human Services, forecasted that the in 2020 there would
be twice as many North Carolinians over age 65 and three times as
many North Carolinians over age 85 than there are today. North Carolinians
can expect to live a longer life during the next decade. However,
the average number of years people can expect to live (life expectancy)
is not uniform across the sexes and various races. Overall, men have
a life expectancy that is approximately six years less than women
and have a higher death rate for all of the ten leading causes of
death. By Race, North Carolina life expectancies are higher for the
White population than for Minorities until the age 75. Thereafter,
Minorities have the higher life expectancies.
Living a healthy life is as important as living a long life. The
best way to provide for a long, healthy life span is to incorporate
healthy behaviors early in life and sustain them. Exercise, healthy
diet and weight, stress management, not smoking, moderate use of
alcohol, and injury prevention habits such as wearing seat belts
and bicycle helmets all contribute to a healthy life span. The health
promotion objectives in this document focus on health behaviors
over a lifetime.
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| 2.
Remove health disparities among the disadvantaged |
The Second goal of the 2010 Health Objectives
is to eliminate health disparities among different segments of the
population. This also aligns with the national Healthy People 2010.
These differences occur by gender, race or ethnicity, education or
income, disability, and geographic location. Eliminating disparities
is a major part of each objective. For more information on this goal,
see Chapter, Eliminating Health Disparities: North Carolina’s
Challenge.
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| 3.
Promote access to preventive health services |
Critical to achieving
the first and second goals is assuring that all residents of North
Carolina have access to preventive health services. Financial, structural,
and personal barriers to health care must be addressed. Health insurance,
supply of primary care providers and a culturally competent health
care system are critical to the health of North Carolinians.
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| 4.
Protect the public’s health |
Protecting
the public’s health includes supporting healthy lifestyles, preventing
disease, and reducing injury and disability. Protecting the public’s
health comes through developing and implementing strong health policies,
adequate capacity to quickly identify emerging diseases, adequate
funding to provide services to all populations, and a strong regulatory
arm to monitor the quality of air, water and soil, as well as food
safety.
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| 5.
Foster positive and supportive living and working conditions in our
communities |
North
Carolina needs healthy communities to support a healthy population.
Where North Carolinians live, learn, work, play, and pray are as critical
to their health and well being as having an adequate healthcare system.
Health is created and sustained in an environment that supports healthy
behaviors, enacts health-supporting policies, and implements interventions
that can reduce the burden of disease, enhance the quality of life,
and increase longevity. Physical and social environments are also
essential for healthy people in healthy communities. Housing, access
for the disabled resident, public transportation, the presence or
absence of violence in the community, life-long educational and employment
opportunities are health-related factors in establishing a healthy
community.
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Support individuals to develop the capacities and skills to achieve
healthy living |
In addition
to strong policies and a healthy physical and social environment,
the individual plays a critical role in his or her health. The everyday
choices of diet, exercise, not to smoke, to wear seat belts, to manage
stress, to seek routine preventive health care, to plan for a long
life (both physically and fiscally), and to raise and support healthy
children are fundamental to a healthy North Carolina in 2010. Individuals
need access to quality information to make these choices. |
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