Background
HEALTH ACTION, Priorities for Monroe County, began in 1995 when the Director of the Monroe County Health Department convened a group of community partners to develop a plan to improve the health of Monroe County residents. The HEALTH ACTION Steering Committee is composed of individuals from community organizations representing business, education and health care.
The overall goal of HEALTH ACTION is to improve the health of the citizens of Monroe County by aligning community resources to focus on selected priorities for action. HEALTH ACTION facilitates collaboration and cooperation among providers, agencies and businesses to benefit the community by concentrating resources where they are most likely to impact health status. A healthy community is one in which the objective measures of health status are at optimal levels and there exists a commitment to health at all levels of the community. This commitment is required to institutionalize a continuous improvement effort.
Health “report cards” are available for five focus areas: Maternal/Child Health, Adolescent Health, Adult Health, Older Adult Health and Environmental Health. Through a community process led by the Board of Health, two priorities for action were selected from the goals on each report card. HEALTH ACTION partnerships address each of these priorities for action with secondary data analysis, and development, implementation and evaluation of interventions.
Visit the HEALTH ACTION website.
Monroe County Environmental Health Report Card for 2005
HEALTH ACTION, a partnership of 15 local organizations, released its first report card assessing the quality of the environment in Monroe County in April,1999. The report was the final in a series of five local health report cards. The other report cards were age-based, covering young children to older adults.
1999 goals identified to improve the local environment in Monroe County:
- Ensure Clean Surface Waters
- Ensure Safe Public Drinking Water
- Improve Outdoor Air Quality
- Improve Indoor Air Quality
- Reduce Lead Levels in Children
- Reduce Toxic Chemical Releases
- Prevent Accidental Toxic Releases
- Ensure Safe Disposal of Solid Wastes
- Continue Restoration of Contaminated Sites
- Reduce Human Exposure to Rabies
- Reduce Exposure to Food Borne Disease
In October 2005, the report was updated and four new goal areas were added:
- Land use
- Transportation
- Energy
- West Nile Virus
Achieving improvements in the environment requires the involvement of individuals, businesses, environmental organizations and governmental agencies of all levels. Beginning in the Fall of 2005, the Monroe County Board of Health will lead a process to encourage participation of community stakeholders in re-assessing priorities for action in Environmental Health.
Download the Environmental Health Report Card Executive Summary (268k PDF).
Download the entire Environmental Health Report Card (1,000k PDF).
HEALTH ACTION Celebrates 10 Years of Health Improvement
Newsletter
HEALTH ACTION—established 10 years ago to improve the health of Monroe County residents—is celebrating numerous health improvements.
Read about many of the highlights in the current HEALTH ACTION newsletter (402k PDF).
Report Cards
Health report cards are available for five focus areas (view these report cards by clicking on the titles):
BeActiveRochester.com
Come on Rochester ... Get moving. Be Active!
Physical activity of all kinds—not just formal exercise—plays a major role in your health. Being active can relieve stress, help you to sleep better, control your weight, strengthen your bones ... you get the idea: It’s good for you!
Gardening, washing the car, mowing the lawn, walking, hiking, biking and other such activities are all very beneficial to your health and don’t require the expense of a membership at the local health club.
In general, you should strive for 30 minutes of some form of physical activity on most days of the week, but here’s the part many people don’t know: It need not be all at one time!! You can break up the 30 minutes into three 10-minute segments or whatever suits your schedule.
BeActiveRochester.com is a collaborative effort of the Democrat and Chronicle, Wegmans and HEALTH ACTION.
So, no more excuses—visit our website now to learn how to Be Active Rochester!
