Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Programs

Mission

Encourage Georgians to improve the quality of their lives by achieving healthy lifestyles, creating healthful environments, and preventing chronic disease, disability, and premature death.

Vision

Improve the quality of life for all Georgians through better health.

Program Description

Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Programs implement population based programs and services aimed at reducing disease risks, promoting healthy youth development, targeting unhealthy behaviors, providing access to early detection and treatment services, and improving management of chronic diseases.

Targeted risk behaviors include smoking, physical inactivity, unhealthy eating, lack of preventive healthcare, sexual violence, and reducing risky behaviors in youth.

There are five key action areas for the work of health promotion:

1. Build healthy public policy;
2. Create environments that support and promote health;
3. Strengthen community action for health;
4. Develop personal skills; and
5. Re-orient health services toward prevention and health promotion.

Program activities are developed and implemented using evidence-based best practices.

Health promotion strategies used to address the five key action areas include: health communication; health education; self help/mutual aid; organizational change; community development and mobilization; advocacy; and policy development. It is the combination of multiple strategies applied across the five action areas that makes health promotion effective.

Office of Cancer Screening and Treatment

• Breast and cervical cancer screening for eligible women through the Georgia Breast and Cervical Cancer Program (BCCP)
• Cancer treatment for low income, eligible Georgians through the Cancer State Aid (CSA) Program
• Breast and cervical cancer treatment for eligible women through the Women’s Health Medicaid Program (WHMP)

Office of Chronic Disease Prevention and Wellness

• Comprehensive tobacco use prevention activities including tobacco cessation services through the Georgia Tobacco Quit Line (GTQL)
• Implementation of population-based strategies that address chronic disease prevention and management
• Primary sexual violence prevention
• Health communication and education
• Implementation of primary prevention strategies to address obesity in children, adolescents, and adults
• Technical assistance to worksites on the development and implementation of evidence-based worksite wellness policies and practices
• Community capacity building through the provision of technical assistance to community based organizations to address chronic disease prevention, risk factor reduction, and positive youth development