What is Public Health?  

Public health is about ensuring the safety of the food we eat and the water we drink. It is about stopping the spread of infectious diseases, promoting good health and managing chronic conditions.

Simply put, public health is concerned with the health of populations – a neighborhood, city, county, state, and even the nation. It differs from individual health and treatment because while public health can deliver direct healthcare services, it focuses on prevention, promoting healthy lifestyles, education and research.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – which has its headquarters in Atlanta – is the public health agency for the U.S.

States, counties, and cities also operate public health departments. While their roles vary, the focus is the political jurisdiction’s entire population.

Georgia’s state, regional and county public health organizations are all part of one system. The 18 public health districts direct the work of county health departments within each district and also report to the state. The state's Division of Public Health (DPH) in turn enters into agreements with county health departments that define funding and services provided.

In FY2007, for example, total Division of Public Health expenditures were $606.3 million. Of that total, only $153.7 million – about 25% – was state funding. The other $452.6 million was federal funds ($437.5 million) and from sources such as tobacco settlement funds.

On a per capita basis, the state’s general fund FY 2007 investment of slightly more than $150 million represents barely more than $16 per Georgian. Federal funds, however, work out to nearly $46 per Georgian – almost three times as much as the state contribution – and along with other state funds bring the total per-capita investment in DPH to roughly $63.50 per Georgian.

There are two types of state payments.

• General Grant in Aid payments are distributed to counties based on formulas.
• Programmatic Grants in Aid are for specific programs.  Most state funds are in this form.

The state provides funds for 11 program categories, within which are more than 30 programs that are budgeted separately within DPH and more than 50 specific activities.

• Adolescent & Adult Health Promotion (such as tobacco use prevention, cancer screening and prevention, family planning);
• Adult Essential Health Services (such as refugee health services and cancer state aid);
• Epidemiology (including laboratory services);
• Immunization;
• Infant & Child Essential Health Treatment Services (such as infant and oral health, perinatal and maternal health, genetics/sickle cell, and Babies Can’t Wait);
• Infectious Disease Control (such as tuberculosis, STDs, HIV/AIDS, and infectious disease lab services);
• Injury Prevention & Control;
• Inspections & Environmental Hazard Control;
• Substance Abuse Prevention;
• Vital Records; and,
• Infant & Child Health Promotion (including the Women, Infants, and Children – WIC – program, which accounts for more than one-third of the DPH budget).