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February, 1969
COMPREHENSIVE AREAWIDE HEALTH PLANNING
In 1966, the United States Congress enacted Public Law 89-749, the “Partner-
ship for Health" act, Under this law, the States, and through them, areas
within the States, must assume responsibility for comprehensive health
planning. The Congress declared that "fulfillment of our national purpose
depends on promoting and assuring the highest level of health attainable
for every person, in an environment which contributes positively to healthful
individual and family living; that attainment of this goal depends on an
effective partnership, involving close intergovernmental collaboration, official
and voluntary efforts. and participation of individuals and organizations;
_that Federal financial assistance must be directed to support the marshalling
of all health resources--national, State , and local--to assure comprehensive
health services of high quality for every person, but without interference
with existing patterns of private professional practice of medicine, dentistry,
and related healing arts".
The Atlanta metropolitan area was the first in Georgia to apply for and
receive an “organizational grant" for the purpose of defining and developing
an organization which will be capable of doing comprehensive health planning
and obtaining community participation and support in the planning effort.
This grant, from the U. S. Public Health Service, through the Georgia Office
of Comprehensive Health Planning, supports the Community Council of the
Atlanta Area in the professional and organizational effort necessary to
instigate such an organization. Dr. Raphael B. Levine, of the Lockheed-
Georgia Company Systems Sciences Research Laboratory, has been named
Director of the Comprehensive Areawide Health Planning, to accomplish these
organizational objectives. ;
The term "comprehensive" means that every aspect of the health picture in
the five-county metropolitan area must be taken into account in the planning
process. This includes not only the treatment of illness and injury, but
their prevention, and the compensation for any lasting effects which they
may leave. Thus, in addition to the manifold activities of medical and
paramedical personnel in the variety of health treatment facilities, planning
must consider environmental controls of the air, water, soil, food, disease
vectors, housing codes and construction, waste disposal, etc. It must
consider needs for the training of health personnel, for the improvement of
manpower and facilities utilization, and for the access to health care.
It includes the fields of mental health, dental health, and rehabilitation.
It must be concerned with the means of paying for preventive measures and
for health care.
The term “planning” means, first, that problem areas and potential problem
areas in the entire field must be identified,and their magnitudes assessed,
The trends of the problems must also be assessed, and projected for future
years. Technical and organizational bottlenecks must be identified, and
"planned around”. Second, the community's resources in meeting its health
needs must be equally carefully identified and projected, in terms of pro-
fessional and subprofessional skills, facilities, and financial resources,