The Division of Public Health has a vision of healthy, vibrant, resilient communities – where all community members share a sense of belonging and experience fair opportunity to reach their fullest health potential.

The discipline of public health is essential to this vision because of its values of social justice and fairness for all, its focus on addressing the underlying determinants that affect health, and its acknowledgment of health as a human right.

Through the public health system, our objective is to protect and promote health and well-being, to prevent disease and disability, to eliminate conditions that harm health, and to affect the social determinants challenging prevention efforts.

View our Public Health Framework

 

CORE PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAMS

Core Public Health Programs	Purpose
Communicable disease prevention and control	To reduce the burden and inequitable distribution of communicable disease and other infections.
Population health assessment, surveillance and epidemiology	To ensure programs and services are informed by population health data and respond effectively to current and evolving conditions that contribute to the public’s health and well–being.
Growth and development in the early years	To optimize the well-being of children, youth and families in a variety of settings (Home, school, community) through the creation and reinforcement of supportive environments and practices during preconception and through the early years of children’s development.
Environmental public health	To protect against exposure to health hazards, and promote the development of built and natural environments that: support health, and mitigate and adapt to emerging and existing risks, including changing climate.
Health promotion and non-communicable disease and injury prevention	To improve population health and lower the incidence of non-communicable disease and injury by facilitating the creation of health enhancing environments.
Health emergency management	To achieve optimal individual, community, and public health system resiliency and capacity to mitigate, prevent, plan, and prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies impacting the health of the population.