The new enabling goal on community prevention recognizes the value of population-based activities that promote health. The proposed focus areas are analogous to, and for the most part use the same names, as Healthy People 2000 priority areas. These are now called focus areas to move away from an implied prioritization. New focus areas have been added in response to changes in health care and public health during the last 10 years. These include impairment and disability and public health infrastructure.
Discussions are ongoing about how best to address the disparities of special population groups.
The proposed focus areas are arranged under specific overarching or enabling goals to show the connections between the different goals and focus areas. As in Healthy People 2000, a set of objectives will be arranged under each focus area. Development of these objectives will be coordinated by focus area work groups with input from the public comments received during the fall of 1997 and fall of 1998. It is expected that special population groups will be considered as objectives are developed in all focus areas. See page 17 for a detailed discussion of objectives.