Health Across the Lifespan
All Californians should have optimal health. Being the healthiest state in the nation means that Californians throughout the lifespan—from our children to our seniors—are healthy.
Healthy Beginnings
Laying the foundation for a healthy life
Living Well
Preventing and Managing Chronic Disease
End of Life
Maintaining Dignity and Independence
Pathways to Health
Health systems and environments should prioritize and support everyday health, improve the quality and efficiency of the health care system, and make community environments more conducive to being healthy.
Redesigning the Health System
Efficient, Safe, and Patient-Centered Care
Creating Healthy Communities
Enabling Healthy Living
Lowering the Cost of Care
Making Coverage Affordable and Aligning Financing to Health Outcomes
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Bringing It All Together
The Let’s Get Healthy California goals and indicators are designed to work together. Here are just a few examples of how the goals are interconnected.
Getting a healthy start sets the stage for health and wellbeing for a person’s entire life. This includes:
- Living in a healthy environment before and while mom is pregnant,
- Having access to health care and health insurance for both mom and baby,
- Receiving care in a quality and coordinated health care system when the baby is born,
- Understanding health risks and benefits for different delivery methods,
- Receiving support for mom and baby when they come home.
As that baby grows into childhood and adolescence, factors such as the following will impact their life as an adult:
- Being physically active and learning in safe schools and neighborhoods,
- Having access to and eating and drinking healthy food and beverages,
- Living in a home and community where youth are emotionally supported
- Consuming enough fruits and vegetables during childhood and adolescence,
- Living in a safe community where people can exercise and easily access healthy foods,
- Using active transportation to get where they need to go,
- Promoting tobacco education and prevention, in addition to help to quit smoking or use of tobacco and/or e-cigarettes,
- Living, working and playing in places where community members are emotionally supported, can connect with their neighbors, and can get help with mental health when needed,
- Getting affordable health insurance coverage,
- Easily receiving high quality health care that meets physical, cultural, and language needs.
Making medical decisions about the end of our lives is just as essential as other health care choices we make. Important actions that Californians can take to maintain quality of life during advanced illness include:
- Having access to health care and health insurance,
- Easily accessing health care providers and high quality health care that meet physical, cultural and language needs,
- Communicating choices and preferences for what we want at the end of life is just as essential as communicating how we want to live,
- Encouraging physicians to have open and early communication,
- Coordinating outpatient care that reaches a patient where they are, addressing their transportation needs, and other health conditions.
- Coordinating outpatient care in order to reach patients where they are, addressing their transportation needs and other health conditions,
- Honoring a person’s end of life choices in a culturally appropriate way,
- Providing adequate access to providers in the community.
Health care that supports health includes:
- Providing access to health insurance that rewards innovations like coordinated care,
- Providing health and health care for both mom and baby.
Where we live makes a difference in our health – physical and environmental determinants either enhance or create barriers to health. In addition, many of the activities in other goal areas improve the environments in which we live, play, and work:
- Promoting tobacco education and prevention, in addition to help to quit smoking or use of tobacco and/or e-cigarettes,
- Coordinating outpatient care that reaches a patient where they are, addressing their transportation needs, and other health conditions,
- Providing health insurance that coordinates care,
- Increasing healthy behaviors, including physical activity levels and healthy eating habits,
- Providing access to health care providers and high quality health care that meet physical, cultural, and language needs.
The rise of health care costs places financial burdens on families, businesses, and the state, making decreasing costs an important goal. Activities in the other goal areas help to make the population healthier and/or lower the overall cost of care. For example:
- Providing easy access to health care providers and high quality health care that meet physical, cultural and language needs,
- Coordinating outpatient care that reaches a patient where they are, addressing their transportation needs, and other health conditions,
- Providing health insurance that coordinates care,
- Living in a safe community where people can exercise and easily access healthy.
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