Healthy People is an organization that attempts to promote the overall health of the American population. One of their major tasks is to increase people’s awareness about the determinants of health and ways of avoiding various diseases. Additionally, they try to improve the cooperation of different government agencies that are responsible for protecting the health of Americans (Healthy People, 2012, unpaged). This is the main purpose of this organization. It should be noted that the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be responsible for coordinating the effort across communities and sectors. In turn, Healthy People will help HHS with this task.
In my opinion, tobacco is one of the most important indicators of how healthy society is. To demonstrate its impact one can look at the statistic findings of researchers. For instance, approximately ten million people, living in the United States, suffer from diseases that are caused by smoking (Edin & Golanty 2009, p. 392). This example shows that individual behavior can be the cause of many preventable diseases and its impact cannot be underestimated. Currently, Healthy People attempts to raise people’s awareness about the adverse effects of tobacco on a person’s health (Healthy People, 2011, unpaged).
Overall, in the future, this organization will strive to create an environment that promotes health. They will focus on the prevention of diseases, the cooperation of governmental agencies, and promoting health equity.
The attempts of Healthy People are in part aimed at helping people to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Nurses are also responsible for this task because they can warn people about the risks of smoking, poor diet, or lack of physical exercise. The work of these professionals can assist organizations like Healthy People.
References
Edin, G. & Golanty, E. (2009). Health and Wellness. New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Healthy People. (2011). Determinants of Health. Web.
Healthy People. (2012). About Healthy People. Web.