Disease Prevention Programs
- Immunization
- Austin Health Connection
- Chronic Disease Prevention
- Family Health
- Public Health Nursing
- Get Tested ATX
The Health Promotion & Disease Prevention program provides preventative health services for the public in order to optimize their health and well being.
Chronic Disease Prevention
PO Box 1088
Austin, TX 78767-1088
(512) 972-5463, (512) 458-9195 Fax
PREVENTION IS THE CURE
The Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Program (CDIPP) works to promote health and quality of life throughout Austin and Travis County by working with the communities to prevent and control disease & injury.
Chronic Disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Chronic diseases include heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and hypertension. These diseases are not contagious. They develop slowly over time and are significantly influenced by lifestyle behaviors.
Healthy lifestyle behaviors that can significantly reduce the risks of developing chronic diseases include being physically active most days of the week, not using tobacco products, not eating too many calories and saturated fat which leads to being overweight, and eating a healthy diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, low fat, high fiber foods.
What do we do ?
Assess Community Health Status related to chronic diseases and injuries by accessing and analyzing epidemiological, survey and other data.
Plan strategic actions to improve community health status, especially relative to chronic diseases and injuries.
Implement interventions to improve health when appropriate especially pilot projects and model programs.
Use strategic partnerships, multiplier approaches, and train-the-trainer tactics to increase impact of small staff.
Evaluate strategic approaches, community initiatives, and a variety of programmatic efforts for effectiveness.
Facilitate cooperation and collaboration among health and human service agencies and community and neighborhood organizations. The intention of such actions is to create greater alignment among partner organizations in working towards community objectives.
Act as internal and external resources for chronic disease and injury related information. This includes dissemination of effective resource materials.
Communicate to the public and to policy maker's chronic disease and injury-related data, information, community issues and resources for catalyzing strategic actions towards achieving community objectives.
CDIPP Strategic Plan
It is our Mission to work with the community to prevent chronic diseases and injuries. To do this we use three Operational Strategies:
- Social Marketing
- Developing and implementing campaigns through mass and targeted media channels and related marketing approaches which publicize issues, communicate information and/or promote behavior change activities which prevent chronic diseases or injuries.
- Working as partners with or consultants to community-wide initiatives and with community agencies and organizations in order to shape their strategies and to design campaigns which will be implemented jointly or by the client themselves.
- Health Behavior Change Methods, Materials and Tools
- Identifying best practices, promoting their use and facilitating their implementation.
- Obtaining or developing health behavior change materials and tools, promoting their use and facilitating their implementation.
- Direct Implementation of Health Promotion/Health Education Projects
- Implement Health Promotion/Health Education projects when the Austin / Travis County Health and Human Services Department is the most appropriate organization to deliver chronic disease and/or injury prevention services directly to the public.
Usually we utilize two or all three of these strategies in implementing our projects.
The mission of the Tobacco Prevention Ordinance is to reduce the health and economic toll tobacco has placed on the citizens of Texas. The major goals of OTPC are:
To eliminate exposure to environmental tobacco smoke
To promote tobacco cessation among adults and youth
To prevent initiation of tobacco use by youth
To identify and eliminate disparities among diverse/special populations
Chronic Disease Prevention
Chronic Disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Chronic diseases include heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and hypertension. These diseases are not contagious. They develop slowly over time and are significantly influenced by lifestyle behaviors.
Methods of preventing chronic diseases include being physically active most days of the week; not using tobacco products; not eating too many calories and saturated fat which leads to being overweight; eating a healthy diet of fresh fruits and vegetables; low fat and high fiber foods.
Most of us know of at least one person in our lives that is living with a chronic disease. It could be a family member, a friend or neighbor, a co-worker, or even our selves. Chronic diseases include heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and hypertension. They are the leading cause of illness and death in the United States, in Texas, and in Travis County. These diseases are not contagious. They develop slowly over time, and there may be NO SYMPTOMS. Risks for developing chronic diseases are significantly influenced by lifestyle behaviors. We can not control all our risks factors, but we can control some of them.
Risks for developing chronic diseases include:
- Heredity: does it run in your family?
- Age: as we age, we all are at increased risks
- Race/Ethnicity: African Americans, Hispanics, Native American Indians have increased risks
- Overweight/Obesity
- Lack of Physical Activity
- Nutrition
Can you think of other risk factors?
Lifestyle behaviors are an area in which we have some control. We can significantly reduce our risks of developing chronic diseases by the choices we make every day. The best way to start living a healthy lifestyle is to focus on one small change at a time. You don't have to change everything all at once. Just choose one area that you would like to focus on and slowly increase your goals over time. Talk with a registered dietitian, or join a walking club. Find support to help you learn and stay motivated. "Make regular investments daily to become what you wish to be."
There are three major areas of lifestyle in which we have the power to choose and affect our chronic disease risks, and these are:
- Increasing physical activity
- Choosing healthy food choices during the day
- Avoiding tobacco products.
