Louis Marchetti

This document presents a vision for healthy housing in Rhode Island, advocating for programmatic and policy changes to create a systematic approach to addressing housing-related health issues. It details the impacts of unhealthy housing due to factors such as asthma, lead poisoning, pest infestation, housing instability, disabilities, injuries, indoor air quality, and noise. The plan outlines action steps in data and research, training, reporting, and policy, aiming to establish housing that is healthy, affordable, secure, accessible, well-maintained, and offers diverse choices, ultimately improving health outcomes and fostering sustainable communities across the state.

This Five Year Workplan outlines a comprehensive strategy by the Rhode Island Department of Health to ensure all homes in Rhode Island are dry, clean, pest-free, ventilated, without contaminants, and maintained. Key objectives include researching and implementing best practices, improving surveillance of health hazards, increasing public and legislative awareness of healthy housing issues, supporting financial programs for healthy housing, assisting in the development and rehabilitation of healthier housing, and forming a statewide network of healthy housing providers.

The Rhode Island Department of Health's Strategic Plan is designed to prevent disease and protect the health and safety of all Rhode Islanders, striving for safe and healthy lives within safe and healthy communities. Guided by science-based decision-making, health opportunity, and collaboration, the plan focuses on four strategic priorities: addressing leading causes of injury, illness, and premature death across the lifespan; reducing health disparities; licensing and regulating to promote health and wellness; and modernizing and bolstering public health infrastructure. This comprehensive approach seeks to enhance public health and ensure equitable access to health opportunities for all residents.

The Rhode Island Department of Health's Strategic Framework serves as a comprehensive blueprint for reducing health disparities and achieving health equity across Rhode Island. This framework outlines 23 overarching population health goals that multiple state agencies, including the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities, and Hospitals, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Children, Youth, and Families, and other health-related offices, are actively working to achieve. Key focus areas encompass reducing obesity and chronic illnesses, promoting maternal, child, and senior health, fostering behavioral wellness and recovery, increasing access to healthy resources, improving environmental health standards, enhancing healthcare systems and workforce development, reducing communicable diseases and substance use disorders, and strengthening public health data and emergency response capabilities.

The event featured welcoming remarks and an opening performance by West African drummers. Key discussion points centered on the importance of health equity, acknowledging past societal failures, and emphasizing health as a fundamental right. The speakers detailed Rhode Island's strategic priorities for the Department of Health, which include addressing social and environmental determinants of health, eliminating health disparities across various factors (race, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability status), and ensuring access to quality health services. The agenda highlighted cross-cutting strategies such as creating an academic center, partnering with state agencies (including Medicaid, DCYFS, Corrections, DEM, DOT, and Elderly Affairs), and launching Community Connections Rhode Island. The speakers also emphasized shifting payment models from volume of services to health outcomes and highlighted the efforts of Secretary Elizabeth Roberts and incoming Director of Health Designate Nicole Alexander Scott.