ODPHP Director

Health and Well-Being Matter is the monthly blog of the Director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. This month, RDML Paul Reed welcomes Victoria Brown, Deputy Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and her perspectives on HUD’s approach to building robust communities in the context of the recently released Federal Plan for Equitable Long-Term Recovery and Resilience. HUD’s investment in local entities and its intentional focus on promotion of what the Vital Conditions for Health and Well-Being framework calls “civic muscle” is akin to a melding of needs, interests, resources, and tools, despite presumed agency: what's come to be known as “shared stewardship”.

Firearm-related injuries and deaths in the United States are a public health crisis. HHS remains committed to reducing the number of firearm-related injuries and deaths. As with other public health challenges, that means openly acknowledging the scope of the problem, updating the public on what we’re doing to reduce firearm-related injuries and deaths, and providing the most up-to-date available guidance to help the broader public navigate the crisis.   

The recent White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health renewed national attention and inspired action to end hunger and reduce the prevalence of chronic disease in the United States by 2030. Realizing these goals requires a far-reaching, cross-sector mobilization of efforts: what the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health refers to as “a whole-of-government and whole-of-America approach” to these challenges. That charge acknowledges that the way forward is found across all sectors of society and through organizations collectively working to foster equity and eliminate disparities — especially in the areas of hunger, nutrition, physical activity, and chronic disease.

There’s widespread agreement that health care is not the principal driver of health. Rather, the conditions in the places where people live, work, and play — what many refer to as social determinants of health — have the greatest influence on our health. Organizational health literacy — the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others — is one of those key social determinants.