23 Programs Selected To Help Make California Healthiest in U.S.

On Tuesday, the California Department of Public Health and the state Health and Human Services Agency selected 23 initiatives aimed at supporting California's goal to become the healthiest state in the country by 2022, the Half Moon Bay Review reports.

Background

The effort stems from a 2012 executive order by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) to create the Let's Get Healthy California program (Half Moon Bay Review, 1/6).

The campaign seeks to:

• Advance the Triple Aim of improving the quality of care, improving health outcomes and reducing costs; and
• Promote health equity (DPH release, 1/5).

Details of Announcement

According to the Fresno Business Journal, the 23 programs each address a specific goal under the Let's Get Healthy California campaign (Fresno Business Journal, 1/6).

The initiatives selected to address the campaign's goal of laying a foundation for a healthy life include:

• Healthy & Active Before 5's "Collaborative Partnerships and Environments for Early Childhood Health" program;
• March of Dimes' "Healthy Babies Are Worth the Wait Community Program";
• Sacramento-based Food Literacy Center's "Building Broccoli Smiles Through Food Literacy" project; and
• Ventura County Public Health's "Bright Beginnings" project.

Programs working toward the campaign's living well goal, which focuses on preventing and managing chronic disease, include:

• AARP's "AARP Livability Index";
• Cultiva La Salud-Public Health Institute's "Street Vendors: Bringing Healthy Food to Central Valley Residents" initiative;
• Los Angeles Community Action Network's "Skid Row Healthy Food Micro-Enterprise Project";
• Waste Not OC's "Ending Hunger in Orange County" project; and
• Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency's "Growing Healthy Habits -- A Community Garden Model" project.

Initiatives chosen for the campaign's goal of maintaining dignity and independence at the end-of-life include:

• UC-San Francisco's "How To Make Advance Care Planning Easier" project;
• UCSF and the University of California Hastings Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy's "Medical-Legal Partnership for Seniors"; and
• UCLA Health and Coalition for Compassionate Care of California's "Advance Care Planning Initiative."

Initiatives selected to address the campaign's goal of redesigning the health system to be more efficient and safe and to offer patient-centered care include:

• Orange County's "Clinic in the Park: Connect, Screen, Educate";
• "The MobileMAMA Text Program: Integrating Medical Care and Social Services for Pregnant Women in the Safety Net" by Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program; and
• Santa Rosa Community Health Centers' care coordination program.

For the campaign's goal of enabling healthy living in the state's communities, DPH and CHHS selected:

• "A Culture of Health: Creation of the Healthy RC Steering Committee" by the City of Rancho Cucamonga and Healthy RC;
• Kern County-based Building Healthy Communities' "Live the Challenge" project;
• Sacramento County's "Active Design Guidelines and Icon" project; and
• The "Walk With Friends" project by the Health Education Council in South the Sacramento Valley Hi neighborhood.

Initiatives selected to address the campaign's goal of making health coverage affordable and aligning financing with health outcomes include:

• Los Angeles County Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program's "Increasing Tdap Vaccination Among Pregnant Medi-Cal Women in Los Angeles County" effort;
• Marin County Department of Health and Human Services' "RxSafe Marin: Marin County Prescription Drug Misuse and Abuse Initiative";
• Partnership HealthPlan of California's "Care Transitions" project; and
• The "Improving Healthcare Quality & Safety While Reducing Costs Through Clinical Pharmacy Service Integration" initiative by the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy and AltaMed Health Services (DPH release, 1/5).