Page 17 - Healthy Brain Initiative, State and Local Public Health Partnerships to Address Dementia: The 2018-2023 Road Map
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Questions to Guide State and CORE PRINCIPLES FOR THE ROAD MAP
Local Public Health in
Planning Road Map Actions Effectively addressing the rising number of people with
Alzheimer’s and other dementias will require diligent
attention to three fundamental principles in planning
and implementing Road Map actions (see Figure
1. Which Road Map actions best fit state 3). These principles—eliminate health disparities,
or local priorities, opportunities, and collaborate across multiple sectors, and leverage
capabilities?
resources for sustained impact—are central to public
health and have been noted by many other seminal
2. How can available data and other
information be used to identify a reports.
reasonable and relevant set of actions? Eliminate health disparities. Optimizing health for
the U.S. population while also eliminating disparities
3. How can identified actions best be remains an integral part of disease prevention and
integrated into existing initiatives? Are health promotion activities. Although significant strides
any new initiatives needed?
have been made in the U.S. in the last two decades,
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4. Who are potential partners? Can any disparities still exist. The 2011 National Prevention
current partnerships be leveraged to Strategy called for the elimination of health disparities
implement actions? and recommended focusing on those populations at
most risk. 8
5. What are possible funding sources, The public health commitment to eliminating disparities
and how can they be secured?
is reflected in the Healthy Aging in Action report, which
6. How will implementation and impact includes elimination of health disparities as a strategic
be evaluated? How and with whom will direction. Prepared by the National Prevention, Health
progress be shared? Promotion, and Public Health Council (National
Prevention Council), the report calls on communities
“to reduce health disparities by building community
partnerships that create health parity; increasing
access to preventive services; increasing the capacity
of healthcare and prevention workers to address
disparities; and implementing strategies that are
culturally, linguistically, and age appropriate for Using the Road Map
people and their caregivers.” In a similar vein, many
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Alzheimer’s state plans also call for reducing barriers
and eliminating health disparities, and consider the
effort central to accomplishing plan goals. II.
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