National Healthy People Initiative Includes Updated Section on Hearing and Other Sensory or Communication Disorders

  Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part posting on Healthy People 2020. The second, which you can read this Thursday, covers how you can get more involved with Healthy People hearing initiatives in your state. Improving the health of all Americans is the goal of a nationwide project, Healthy People. Launched in 1979 by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPH) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Healthy People sets and monitors national health objectives to meet a wide range of health issues, encourage research and guide the public in making the best health decisions. Each decade, ODPH incorporates scientific learning and current data trends into a 10-year health plan for the nation. Healthy People 2020 (HP2020) objectives generate a vision of a “society in which all people live long, healthy lives.” Its mission is to improve health by strengthening policy and practice, identifying nationwide health improvement priorities and increasing public health awareness of the social and biological determinants of health, disease and disability. Social determinants include unhealthy habits, such as smoking and exposure to loud noise. Biological determinants include, for example, genetics, infections, ototoxic and other sensitivities to certain medications, injury and age. ASHA has been an active member of the Healthy People Consortium—more than 400 private and national organizations and state departments of health—since 1989...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech Therapy Authors: Tags: Audiology Health Care Hearing Assistive Technology hearing loss hearing protection Source Type: blogs