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Federal Government and States Take Action to Protect Black Maternal Health

The death of three-time Olympian Tori Bowie due to complications from childbirth in 2023 was yet another tragic loss.  Her death and that of far too many women highlight the disturbing maternal health crisis in the United States.

Despite having the highest healthcare spending among high-income countries, the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among those countries. And this maternal health crisis is disproportionately impacting Black women, Native American women, and women in rural areas.

Roughly 700 women in the U.S. die each year from pregnancy-related or childbirth complications, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many of these deaths are preventable. The maternal mortality rate for Black women is almost three times greater than that of white women over the last decade.

Black Maternal Health Week is recognized each year from April 11-17 to bring attention and action improving Black maternal health.  It also coincides with April being National Minority Health Month.

The call to take action on Black maternal health has reached the highest levels of the U.S. government. The White House Blueprint for Addressing The Maternal Health Crisis  outlines actions the Biden-Harris Administration will take to improve maternal health, all rooted in a focus on health equity. The action steps include increasing access to and coverage of comprehensive high-quality maternal healthcare, advancing data and research on maternal health issues, expanding and diversifying the perinatal workforce, and strengthening economic and social supports for pregnant people and families.

States are also responding with innovative and collaborative solutions that could revolutionize how the country supports expecting mothers.

New Jersey is one such example.  The state rolled out a comprehensive plan in 2021 to address maternal health, especially for mothers and babies of color. Nurture New Jersey was launched by the state’s first lady, Tammy Murphy, and was informed by years-long, science-based, multisector planning. The final report includes actionable commitments to build and improve racial equity and community infrastructure, engage multiple public and private sectors to achieve collective impact on health, and strategies to shift narratives and mindsets around maternity.

Murphy initiated an annual Black Maternal and Infant Health Summit, bringing together stakeholders from healthcare, academia, and community-based organizations. The state has made efforts to improve access to midwifery services and to improve the workforce pipeline. And the state issues a maternal health hospital report card that grades every licensed birthing facility to provide residents with another layer of information during their family planning.

New Jersey has the fourth highest maternal mortality rates in the nation with 46 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, as reported in the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security’s 2020 U.S. Women, Peace and Security Index. For Black women within the state, that rate rises to 132 deaths per 100,000 live births. The state’s plan calls for reducing maternal mortality rates by 50 percent.

Other states have used targeted strategies to address specific areas of concern.

Forty-six states, including the District of Columbia, have extended Medicaid postpartum coverage from 60 days to 12 months, and two other states are planning to implement a 12 month extension. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 gave states the option to extend coverage. More than half of births to individuals of color are covered by Medicaid.

More than half of states allow Medicaid to cover doula services. Many of women of color choose doulas during their pregnancy for more personal support and due to concerns about implicit and explicit bias that exists within the healthcare system.

Other actions states can take to improve maternal care include postpartum coverage extension. To date, numerous states have introduced legislation to extend such coverage and two have succeeded: California and Texas.  In addition, states should prioritize Medicaid applications for pregnant people as Hawaii and Rhode Island have done.

By using the governmental, community, and cultural resources such as doulas and midwives to support Black women and families during pregnancy, the U.S. has the opportunity to vastly improve maternal health care and outcomes.

 

 

 

TFAH’s 2023 – 2026 Strategic Plan

The Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) 2023 – 2026 Strategic Plan provides a roadmap for our work to advance policymaking that promotes optimal health for every person and community. The plan details four priorities, and objectives within each, to support the nation’s public health system, address the social and economic drivers of health, emphasize prevention, and advance health equity.

Strategic Priority 1:  A strong, resilient, trusted, and equitable public health system that addresses our nation’s public health opportunities and challenges.

Strategic Priority 2:  Innovation that drives systemic change to promote and protect health and well-being for all.

Strategic Priority 3:  The advancement of health equity in public health and prevention.

Strategic Priority 4:  A dynamic, sought-after, people-centered organization that is thriving.

The plan is the culmination of an extensive process that engaged our Board of Directors, staff, partners, and other stakeholders. It builds upon TFAH’s current strengths as well as identifies opportunities to strengthen the public health system and support community conditions that advance health and well-being.

TFAH Celebrates National Public Health Week

April 1-7, 2024 is National Public Health Week. This year’s theme is Protecting, Connecting and Thriving: We Are All Public Health and TFAH is proud to celebrate and recognize all of the individuals, organizations, and agencies that work to protect health, advance equity, and promote well-being in communities nationwide.

Public health workers are on the front lines helping communities prevent chronic diseases and substance misuse, defending against disease outbreaks, protecting our water supply, and preparing for and responding to natural and human-caused disasters. Their work is constant and critically important to improving and protecting the health and safety of all communities.

Examples of the contributions of the public health system to advancing Americans’ health are many, including:

  • Increasing life expectancy – Americans’ life expectancy steadily increased during the 20th century and through 2009 the first decade of the 21st century, was flat between 2010 and 2018 the next decade, and declined during the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest available data, for 2022, showed a slight rebound in the life expectancy trendline.
  • Delivering vaccines – the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries saw substantial decreases in vaccine preventable diseases such as measles and polio thanks in part to public health programs to ensure vaccine access, particularly in underserved communities.
  • Promoting maternal and infant health – programs to support pregnant people have created improved access to prenatal, post-partum, and infant healthcare, but more work needs to be done to address racial and ethnic disparities in maternal and postpartum health outcomes.
  • Helping people who smoke quit – the initial phase of the Centers for Disease Control’s Tips from Former Smokers campaign (2012 – 2018) helped more than one million people successfully stop smoking, which has prevented an estimated 129,000 early deaths and saved approximately $7.3 billion in smoking-related healthcare costs.
  • Protecting health during extreme heat – extreme heat threatens the public’s health. Several U.S. jurisdictions have heat response plans, and others are working on creating such plans. Heat response plans outline actions to mitigate the impact of the increasing number and intensity of heatwaves.

“Public health practitioners work tirelessly to prevent disease, prepare for and respond to disasters, address health disparities, and create healthy communities. This vital work deserves support and requires investment to fully fund the public health infrastructure and its workforce,” said Dr. J. Nadine Gracia, M.D. MSCE, President and CEO of Trust for America’s Health.

Most of the money spent on healthcare in the U.S. goes toward preventable illnesses and injuries. Increased and sustained funding for public health would be an investment in prevention and would help to reduce healthcare spending over time. TFAH has called for $4.5 billion annually to adequately fund public health infrastructure across the country.  As the White House and Congress work on FY 2025 appropriations, lawmakers should support the full range of work the CDC and health departments do every day to keep communities safe and healthy.

A different public health theme is highlighted each day during National Public Health Week. Visit the American Public Health Association and to access information and resources on each topic.

The Affordable Care Act at 14: Preserve the Progress

This March marks the 14th anniversary of the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Its passage was the most significant advancement of health policy since the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s and made healthcare accessible and affordable for millions more Americans.  Despite efforts to repeal and restrict the ACA, the progress the legislation has made toward health equity and improving public health prevention is significant and lifesaving. It must be preserved.

The ACA was signed into law in March 2010 during the 110th Congress. Some of the major provisions of the legislation include the creation of a public marketplace for health insurance, expansion of Medicaid eligibility to many adults with low incomes, coverage of recommended preventive services, and the establishment of the Prevention and Public Health Fund.

In the decade leading up to the ACA’s passage, the percentage of people without health insurance steadily increased, reaching over 16 percent of all U.S. residents in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Preventive services such as mammograms and other cancer screenings, diabetes screenings, and vaccinations were a costly expense and not easily accessible for a significant number of Americans.

Health insurance enrollment has soared in the years since the Affordable Care Act became law. Forty states and D.C. have expanded Medicaid. As a result, many of those states saw a significant decrease in the share of people without insurance. Nationally, the percentage of uninsured adults between 18-65 steadily decreased to 12.2 percent in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Uninsurance rates also dropped significantly for Black, Latino, and Asian Americans, and for households with lower-incomes.

Medicaid expansion has had significant benefits related to greater health insurance coverage. Mortality rates declined in states that expanded Medicaid eligibility to more adults with low incomes, according to a 2021 study (using data from before COVID-19 was declared a public health emergency). Expansion has contributed to healthcare affordability, access and utilization of care, financial security, and positive impacts on state economies.

Additionally, the ACA ensured access to vital preventive care and screenings without a copay. Prior to the ACA, many health plans failed to cover preventive services, and those that did often required individuals to pay a share of the costs. Even small out-of-pocket payments have been shown to deter people from accessing preventive services, particularly people with lower incomes.

The creation of the Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF) has been an important tool for improving health outcomes and reducing health expenditures. To date, PPHF has provided over $12 billion to states and territories to expand access to immunizations, strengthen detection of diseases, and prevent chronic diseases. One program supported by PPHF, the Tips from Former Smokers Campaign, has helped one million smokers quit for good, preventing an estimated 129,000 early deaths.

Yet, the ACA’s progress continues to be at risk.

Ten states have yet to expand Medicaid eligibility. And the current unwinding of continuous Medicaid enrollment that was authorized during the COVID-19 public health emergency has left many individuals and families without health coverage.

Litigation currently moving through the courts threatens access to preventive services. TFAH joined other public health organizations and scholars in an amicus brief describing the potential harms of overturning ACA’s preventive services coverage requirements. Should the courts overturn part or all of this important protection, millions of Americans could lose access to these life-saving services.

An additional threat to the ACA’s impact is the use of monies that should be directed to the Prevention and Public Health Fund to other legislation or priorities. To date, nearly $13 billion has been redirected in this manner. Most recently, the proposed costs in the Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act of 2023 were offset by taking more than $1 billion from PPHF. TFAH was joined by more than 100 organizations in a letter opposing these cuts.

TFAH will continue to urge Congress to restore funding for the Prevention and Public Health Fund and protect access to preventive services.

The ACA is a critical catalyst toward the goal of ensuring the opportunity for optimal health for everyone. It has unlocked access to healthcare including preventive services for so many in this country, including those at the highest risk of poor health. We can’t afford to turn back.

What If Congress Adequately Funded Public Health?

You know the old adage, ‘those that don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.’ Coming off the COVID-19 public health emergency that has thus far claimed the lives of 1.2 million Americans, there are discussions in Congress to significantly cut funding for public health initiatives to dangerously low levels – again. And it doesn’t have to be like this.

Why do we go through these bleak cycles when anchoring public health in policymaking is a win-win decision for everyone – from elected officials to individual constituents.

Federal public health funding is facing challenges on multiple fronts right now. Congress continues to negotiate appropriations bills for the 2024 fiscal year, which will have major implications for the next fiscal year and beyond. The current short-term funding agreement for Health and Human Services expires on March 22. If Congress passes another continuing resolution rather than new appropriations, it could trigger extreme, across-the-board cuts to non-defense spending.

First, continuing resolutions, which are short-term measures to fund the government at the previous year’s levels, negatively impact the systems we need to protect the nation’s health. And severe cuts triggered by failing to pass a long-term spending bill would be even more dangerous. TFAH has joined more 1,000 other organizations in urging Congress to pass a full-year funding bill using the bipartisan framework laid out in the Senate as a starting point for negotiations.

Secondly, the FY2024 bills proposed by the House and Senate for Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies – the main funding source for public health programs – are vastly different and neither addresses the chronic underfunding of public health. Congress has already rescinded hundreds of millions of dollars intended to shore up the public health workforce and readiness and response efforts. The Senate’s bill proposes a small cut to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the House version would cut about $1.6 billion from CDC’s budget. TFAH and partners have called for a $2.5 billion increase for CDC.

Finally, we continue to see proposals to cut the Prevention and Public Health Fund, a critical investment in programs ranging from immunizations to tobacco use prevention. If these proposals were to move forward, this would again push public health funding into the “bust” phase of a decades long “boom and bust” funding pattern.

The health, safety, and well-being of individuals and communities should be at the foundation of U.S. policy and be funded accordingly.

Imagine if we fully invested in the prevention of adverse childhood experiences, suicide, and substance misuse. Many communities would see suicide and overdose rates fall.

Imagine if we prevented the root causes of death, injury, and excess healthcare costs instead of spending trillions of dollars to treat preventable chronic conditions. Workers would be healthier and more productive, employers would face fewer financial burdens, and the nation would be more resilient and thriving.

Imagine if CDC, state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments had modern data systems instead of rudimentary spreadsheets to track the spread of diseases. This country could contain potential outbreaks in their earliest stages and save lives.

Much of our health and well-being is determined by economic, environmental, and societal factors. In the midst of a recent and troubling decrease in life expectancy, TFAH believes that investing in the foundations of public health and effective prevention programs is a critical and indispensable path forward to protecting and promoting the health of the nation.

 

 

 

 

Black History Month Spotlight: National Council of Negro Women and Good Health WINs Initiative

February marks Black History Month, and the theme for this year celebrates Black artists as ‘agents of change.’

The National Council of Negro Women’s Good Health Women’s Immunizations Networks (Good Health WINS) initiative, of which Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) is a founding member, has certainly been an agent of change in the art of public health. The historic national organization’s efforts to bolster vaccinations among African Americans and counter misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic were important to reaching and educating Black families and communities across the country.

The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) was founded in 1935 by legendary philanthropist, civil rights activist, and suffragist Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune as a vehicle to empower African American women, their families, and communities. It has historically served as an umbrella organization for a network of chapters and groups advancing Black women civically, politically, and economically. The organization and its revered leaders have provided housing and education for women, particularly in the South, and been recognized for its influence and measured approach to policy advocacy.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization furthered its leadership on the front lines of promoting and protecting the health of communities of color, particularly as the first COVID-19 vaccines began to rollout. Fears, mistrust, inequitable distribution, barriers to access and misinformation led to African Americans initially having much lower vaccination rates than other populations.

In 2021, NCNW partnered with TFAH, Vaccinate Your Family (VYF) – a collaborative that drew on its partners’ expertise and reach to provide culturally-specific educational and messaging resources to its communities.

The initiative elevated voices trusted in Black communities to provide crucial information about vaccines at a time when past racial medical injustices, such as the Tuskegee experiments, were being used against the new vaccines. Good Health WINs produced how-to videos for social media and fact sheets. In its first year alone, the nationwide network hosted nearly 1,500 vaccination events, reaching 750,000 people.

COVID-19 vaccination rates are now higher for African American adults than their white counterparts, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), largely due to Good Health WINs and efforts like it. At the end 2023, nearly 83 percent of African Americans received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, compared to 80 percent of white Americans who received at least one dose.

NCNW’s ability to build and facilitate this coalition has been instrumental to its wide reach. NCNW itself is a collaborative of 36 national organizations that serve the Black community. Many chapters of historically Black Greek-letter fraternities and sororities are part of the NCNW/Good Health WINs network. Lifelong community service is an integral part of membership for these Pan-Hellenic organizations. The network also includes many faith-based organizations with sophisticated external marketing capabilities, such as the Alfred Street Baptist Church.

“We were facing a pandemic unprecedented in our lifetimes that, because of longstanding social determinants of health, posed an existential threat to African Americans,” said NCNW President and CEO Reverend Shavon Arline-Bradley. “Fortunately, our network and experience, including with HIV/AIDS education, equipped us to act quickly and decisively.  We appreciate the support of Trust for America’s Health, Vaccinate Your Family, the Centers for Disease Control, Moss Consulting, our dedicated employees and tens of thousands of volunteers who support Good Health WINs.”

To date, more than 600,000 people have attended Good Health WINs events, and it has reached over 1.4 million people on social media with its science-based information about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, according to the organization.

Good Health WINs provides communications toolkits for its members and circulates success stories from local chapters with the rest of the network.

The community engagement expertise of the NCNW, combined with the public health expertise of TFAH, CDC, and VYF, has been a fruitful recipe for raising awareness on other critical health needs in Black communities. The work now includes efforts to provide immunization resources for seasonal viruses and other diseases, as well as publicizing other health and wellness events, particularly around preventing heart disease.

“Outreach efforts that authentically and meaningfully seek to empower its constituents is an artform that the National Council of Negro Women has long mastered and that the country needs to achieve health equity,” said TFAH President and CEO Dr. J. Nadine Gracia. “Partnerships with community-based organizations that are trusted in their communities, supported by funding and resources to implement effective programs, are essential to promote optimal health, reduce health disparities, and advance health equity.”

TFAH’s President and CEO Dr. Gracia Discusses the Significance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day & National Day of Racial Healing

(Washington, DC – January 15, 2024) – This week TFAH’s President and CEO, Dr. J. Nadine Gracia and Director of Strategic Communications and Policy Research Rhea Farberman discussed the significance of two important observances, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the National Day of Racial Healing. The conversation focused on the intersections between Dr. King’s mission to advance social justice and TFAH’s work to promote optimal health. Also discussed were the ways in which structural racism creates barriers to good health for many people of color and the policy actions needed to dismantle those barriers.

“What we know, especially in thinking about this in terms of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the National Day of Racial Healing, is that for too many people of color and communities of color there has been, over many decades, a disadvantage in terms of access to health promoting resources.”

“We have to act with a sense of urgency because the health, well-being and prosperity of our nation depends on it.  That’s the call that I believe Dr. King would challenge us to continue, to strive for and not relent.  That’s his legacy to us, to ensure that everyone us the opportunity to reach their full potential for health.”

Dr. J. Nadine Gracia
President and CEO
Trust for America’s Health

“Listen to the full conversation”

 

Ending Structural Racism’s Impact on Health in Communities of Color – Public Health’s Role

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called health injustice “the most inhumane form” of inequality.

As the nation recognizes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Day and the National Day of Racial Healing, Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) is reflecting on how the public health sector has and can continue to overcome barriers to optimal health caused by the historical and contemporary effects of structural racism. These barriers include long-standing policies, investment and funding patterns, and laws that continue to limit access to safe housing, quality education, employment, healthcare, and even healthy and nutritious food in many communities of color. The result is, on average, higher rates of chronic disease and lower life expectancy for people of color. These inequities will continue to have serious health and economic consequences for the entire country if not fully confronted.

Changing this narrative starts with anchoring discussions with the truth about the impact of racism and working collectively to heal and advance racial equity. Increasingly, the public health field is acknowledging the negative effects that racism has on individuals’ and community health and is working across communities to find solutions, including:

Still, more needs to be done to end the vestiges of structural racism and this country’s longstanding public health crisis. Here are five ways to help fully realize that vision:

  • Center communities and people of color when developing health promoting strategies. Agencies and organizations should work with communities that are disproportionately impacted and incorporate their voice and lived experience in decision-making wherever possible.
  • Invest in the public health system, including building a larger and more racially and ethnically diverse and inclusive public heath workforce. Public health authorities should also be protected so that health officials can implement science-based, nonpartisan health measures routinely and during emergencies.
  • Increase and consistently fund public health measures, rather than allocating money only in response to emergencies. Communities that are historically under-resourced and marginalized should be a priority in funding decisions.
  • Modernize technology for disease monitoring systems for improved, disaggregated health data collection and sharing that will lead to tailored approaches for specific populations.

TFAH is committed to partnering with organizations of color and advocating for and supporting policies that advance health equity.

“Public health, collaborating with its multi-sector partners, is uniquely positioned to address structural racism’s impact on health. As the nation observes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Day and the National Day of Racial Healing, TFAH commends the efforts of the public health community striving toward the goal of optimal health and well-being for all people, while we also recognize that more work must be done in our journey to health equity,” said TFAH President and CEO Dr. J. Nadine Gracia.

Advocates Urge Congressional Leaders to Reject Massive Cuts Which Would Put Public’s Health at Risk

(Washington, DC – January 8, 2024) This week, Trust for America’s Health joined the Coalition for Health Funding and a broad, multisector group of over 1,100 organizations in a letter to Congress voicing strong concern that a full-year continuing resolution would trigger massive cuts that would be “disastrous for the capacity of the Federal government to serve the public.” The letter to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries urged policymakers to work together using the bipartisan Senate Appropriations Committee funding levels as a starting point for FY2024 negotiations moving forward.

At stake is funding for programs that are critical to safeguarding the public’s health. Examples include prevention and response to health emergencies; programs that provide nutrition assistance to young children, families, and older adults; medical care for veterans; housing and home energy assistance programs; and investments that ensure safe transportation and drinking water. These programs are a small part of the federal budget but represent major impacts on communities’ health and wellbeing.

Read the letter at: NDD United Letter, January 7, 2024 

Trust for America’s Health 2023 Year in Review

The past year included divergent trends within the public health sector. While the country emerged from the emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, other threats to the nation’s health, including chronic disease rates, substance misuse and suicide, and the impacts of climate change continued to increase. TFAH spent the past year raising awareness and advancing policy actions to address these long-standing and emerging public health challenges with a particular focus on the ways these issues disproportionally impact certain communities.

Public Health Warning Signs in 2023

The work of public health and healthcare professionals was key to turning the corner in the fight to control COVID-19. However, the end of the public health emergency and Congressional action resulted in the rollback of federal and state funds allocated to respond to the pandemic and strengthen public health capacity. Consequently, money for thousands of public health positions funded by temporary response dollars was lost, and public health measures were given less priority. Being fully prepared for the next public health emergency will depend on breaking out of the boom-and-bust cycle of public health funding and growing and diversifying the public health workforce.

Obesity rates also continued to increase, as TFAH noted in this year’s State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America report.  As reported, obesity rates continued their 20-year climb for every demographic group measured. Nearly 42 percent of all adults in the United States have obesity compared to 30 percent in 1999-2000. One in five children ages 2-19 have obesity, according to 2017-2020 data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. That’s three times the rate from the 1970s.

Extreme weather events fueled by climate change took lives and caused billions of dollars in damage in communities across the country. Parts of the south and southeast experienced unprecedented and dangerous levels of extreme heat. Wildfires that erupted in Hawaii in August devastated the town of Lahaina, and wildfires in Canada created health-impacting smoke events across the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and into the Midwest. The 2023 edition of Ready or Not: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism showed that many states have improved their public health and emergency management systems, but 15 states were placed in the low-performing tier for preparedness.

This year’s edition of TFAH’s Pain in the Nation report also noted that the alarming increase in the number of deaths from substance misuse and suicide over the last decade is continuing. There was an all-time record of 209,225 Americans that lost their lives due to drugs, alcohol, or suicide in 2021, which was double the amount in 2011.

TFAH’s 2023 Policy Activities

During the year, TFAH worked to raise awareness and educate policymakers about the importance of investment in public health programs and the benefits of those investments.

Our outreach efforts went beyond Capitol Hill. TFAH provided advice throughout the year to key staff at the White House, federal agencies and the health and public health sectors.

  • TFAH submitted comments to the Office of Management and Budget on its plan to update the way the federal government collects data by race and ethnicity. Ensuring health equity starts with accurate and comprehensive collection of data on race and ethnicity.
  • The White House created the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response in July. Solidifying this type of federal leadership structure is a long-standing recommendation of our annual Ready or Not
  • TFAH collaborated regularly with the Office of National Drug Control Policy including providing comments on the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to curb substance misuse.
  • TFAH President and CEO Dr. J. Nadine Gracia was appointed by President Joe Biden to serve on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, & Nutrition, along with other leaders from the world of sports, fitness, nutrition, and advocacy.
  • TFAH supported policy initiatives to promote healthy eating. Dr. Gracia also provided testimony before the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Advisory Committee on the public health impacts of updating the dietary guidelines.
  • The U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed aligning school nutrition standards with the standard Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This was a key recommendation in the State of Obesity
  • TFAH’s Age-Friendly Public Health Systems movement expanded to include working with state public health institutes to build expertise in healthy aging policy and programs with the goal of elevating healthy aging as a core function of state departments of health.
  • TFAH partnered with the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to facilitate collaborations between state departments of health and state departments of aging that prioritize older adult health issues, such as mitigating the effects of social isolation, including older adults in emergency planning, and addressing shortages in the direct care workforce.

Amplifying Our Voice 

TFAH also continued to work to disseminate data and key messages to the public health community and to our partners to not only inform the field at large, but also to help build a unified front to protect critical public health functions and authorities.

In 2020, TFAH, the CDC Foundation and the de Beaumont Foundation formed the Public Health Communications Collaborative to provide the field with science-based messages and resources to help state and local public health officials be effective communicators during the pandemic and to counter misinformation. This year, as the collaborative began to create messaging materials on public health issues beyond the pandemic, the appetite for PHCC information was just as strong as it was during its inception, which included providing resources on effective crisis communications and culturally-relevant messaging. Messaging support materials created during the year included communicator toolkits on when to take an at-home COVID-19 test, managing health during air quality alerts, and on fall respiratory illness prevention. PHCC’s monthly webinars averaged over 1,000 participants and newsletter subscriptions were up over 13 percent.

During 2024

Our strategic priorities to advance a strong, resilient, trusted, and equitable public health system and to ensure that prevention and health equity are foundational to policymaking will be central to and at the forefront of TFAH’s work in the coming year.

Our research, policy, advocacy, and organizational development efforts will lead to:

  • A strong, resilient, trusted, and equitable public health system that addresses our nation’s public health opportunities and challenges.
  • Innovation that drives systemic change to promote and protect health and well-being for all.
  • The advancement of health equity in public health and prevention.
  • Ensuring that TFAH is a dynamic, sought-after, people-centered organization that is thriving.

TFAH is committed to being a tireless advocate for the nation’s public health needs and system. Return to our website throughout the coming year for information and updates.