Healthy People 2010

The setting of health objectives has become an important part of the public health improvement strategy over the last twenty years. It began in 1979 with the publication of HEALTHY PEOPLE, The Surgeon General’s Report on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. This groundbreaking plan laid out Health Goals and Objectives for 1990 in order to bring "management by objectives" to the public health process. This was followed in 1990 with the publication of HEALTHY PEOPLE 2000: National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

Like most States, Rhode Island followed by producing its own version of year 2000 health objectives in 1994 entitled HEALTHY RHODE ISLANDERS 2000 which contains 25 health objectives designed specifically for Rhode Island. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched the third generation of national health objectives in 2000 with the adoption of HEALTHY PEOPLE 2010. Again, it is the intent of the Rhode Island Department of Health to follow the lead of the federal government. With our partners we intend to create Rhode Island health objectives for the year 2010 to guide our public health efforts over this first decade of the 21st century.

However, before we begin the new objective setting process, we believe it is important to take stock of our collective progress in meeting the 25 Rhode Island health objectives for the year 2000. There is no point in setting objectives for the year 2010 until we have a good idea of the progress made in meeting our health objectives for the year 2000 which is now here! Each cycle of health planning should end with an evaluation phase before the next iteration of setting objectives begins. That is the purpose of this report. We hope that this PROGRESS REVIEW will provide a solid foundation for the creation of year 2010 health objectives for Rhode Island. We look forward to working with all of our collaborators on that next phase of this central public health planning process