The mission of the CCD Prevention Task Force is consistent with the mission of the U.S. Public Health Service—to prevent disease and...disability. The task force advocates for the service’s programs. The prevention task force also engages in concerted advocacy for national public policy and heightened public awareness in the area of prevention of congenital birth defects and acquired illness/injuries and prevention of secondary conditions in persons with disabilities.
Learning Disability Association of America (LDA)
Research Institute for Independent Living (RIIL)
American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD)
There is a persistently reoccurring misassumption among the public that disability among Americans is rare. Recent data indicates that there are 53.6 million Americans with disabilities with over 80% acquired during ones lifetime. Less than desirable lifestyles such as alcohol and substance abuse, tobacco environmental toxins, lack of access to clinical preventive services, and medical services and insufficient physical exercise can diminish health to a point where there is an adverse impact on a major life function (i.e. disability).
The World Health Organization indicates that the United States is 37th among industrialized nations on the health status measure of quality life years. A major reason for the poor health of Americans, that can lead to disability, is a less than adequate public health system. Therefore, the major focus of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Prevention task force is to advocate for the implementation of effective public health through programs directed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes for Health.
The goals and priorities of the U.S. Public Health Service through Healthy People 2010 and the public health issue of poverty is the major legislative policy content for advocacy of the task force.
The CCD Prevention Task Force works toward crafting, enacting, passing and implementing prevention legislation in Congress; securing Congressional appropriations for necessary programs; supporting prevention-related public relations/media initiatives; and working collaboratively with federal agencies and national coalitions.
Prevention and Environmental Health
H. R. 5820
Prenatal Exposure to PBDEs and Neurodevelopment
The Prevention Task Force sent a letter to President Bush in protest of the proposed cuts to more than 70 disability prevention/public health programs included in his Fiscal Year 2007 budget. A co-chairs letter was sent to the American Public Health Association in support of its initiative through the Healthy Places Act of 2006 to design assessments and evaluation of implementation of public health programs. An interagency working group on environmental health that includes nearly all federal agencies will facilitate communication on environmental health-related projects and policies and serve as a centralized mechanism to coordinate national efforts.