Healthy People Portage County began in 1999 as a community wide initiative with the goal of establishing an ongoing process for identifying and addressing health needs in Portage County. This new health plan is part of the ongoing planning process for our community.
The intent of the plan is to foster successful partnership of many facets of our community in order to improve community health. A Community Assessment Team representing a broad spectrum of Portage County constituencies including business, education, faith communities, government, health care, not-for-profit agencies and citizens reviewed county and state health data in relationship to State of Wisconsin Health Priorities and National Health Objectives for 2010. Healthiest Wisconsin 2010: a Partnership to Improve the Health of the Public was used as a guiding document to benchmark our community with State and National health goals. The format of this plan is also consistent with this document.
Of the eleven health priorities identified in Healthiest Wisconsin 2010: a Partnership to Improve the Health of the Public, the Healthy People Portage County Community Assessment team identified three priorities as areas of focus for this health plan:
- Alcohol and Other Substance Abuse and Addiction
- Mental Health and Mental Disorders
- Overweight, Obesity and Lack of Physical Activity
Preliminary goals, outcomes and suggested strategies, and key community partners for each of these priorities are included in this plan. These health priorities affect health conditions as summarized in the following chart:
Healthy People Portage County is an ongoing health assessment and planning process. Data will be reviewed every five years both to monitor progress toward identified goals and to establish new goals and priorities as necessary. Five implementation teams used the previous plan, Healthy People Portage County: Community Health Plan 2000-2004 to accomplish many successful initiatives from 1999 through 2004.
This document provides a framework for continued progress on improving the health of Portage County.