Harrisburg, PA - Wolf Administration officials today met with federal and local partners as part of the Public Health 3.0 initiative to discuss ways to improve health-care access for Pennsylvania’s many diverse communities.
“The Wolf Administration believes that the community you live in should not affect your access to high-quality medical care,” Dr. Rachel Levine, Acting Health Secretary and Physician General, said. “Public Health 3.0 will help us learn how to bridge the health-resource gaps in Pennsylvania through team work and sharing best practices. When your zip code is a larger determining factor for your health than your own genetic code, something is very wrong – we are committed to fixing these problems.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is the lead agency that oversees the Public Health 3.0 initiative. This collaboration’s aim is to improve health equity for traditionally underserved groups of people.
Public Health 3.0 calls for business leaders, community leaders, state lawmakers and federal policymakers to boldly expand public health to address all aspects of life that promote health and well-being, including:
- Economic development;
- Education;
- Transportation;
- Food;
- Environment;
- Housing; and
- Safe neighborhoods.
Partner groups represented at today’s event included the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Share Food Program, the Health Promotion Council, Philadelphia FIGHT, the Maternity Care Coalition, Prevention Point, and more. For more information on groups and resources related to Public Health 3.0, visit the Live Healthy PA website.
Every six months, the department will work with community partners to hold follow-up events to today’s Public Health 3.0 meeting. Future efforts will focus on progress reports and sharing lessons learned from the new community collaborations.
For more information about outreach efforts to improve health equity in Pennsylvania, visit the Department of Health website at www.health.pa.gov or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
MEDIA CONTACT: April Hutcheson - 717-787-1783
# # #