Welcome to the Downeast Public Health Council

The Downeast Public Health Council is a representative, district-wide body formed in partnership with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC) to engage in collaborative planning and decision-making for the delivery of the ten Essential Public Health Services in the Downeast Public Health District. The Downeast Public Health District serves the people in Hancock and Washington Counties.

Vision - Downeast Maine Communities are among the healthiest in the state.

Mission - Promote the health of all our communities by providing public health information, coordination, collaboration, and advocacy.

The Downeast Public Health Council mobilizes working partnerships to coordinate efforts and resources within the District to produce results that no one community, organization, or sector could achieve effectively or efficiently alone.

District Public Health Planning

In collaboration with District partners and the Maine Center for Disease Control, the Council creates and updates a District Public Health Improvement Plan (DPHIP). The plan identifies the Downeast District’s public health priorities in order to create a multi-year plan of objectives, strategies, and outcomes for district action. The DPHIP also informs partners of the district work and is used to inform the State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP).

Our last District Public Health Improvement Plan was for the years 2017 – 2019. In 2020, in order to assess a better understanding of the system in the district, all districts undertook the Local Public Health Systems Assessment (LPHSA) process during the spring. As the district meetings were scheduled and planned, many of the districts had to postpone those meetings due to the COVID-19 response. They will be rescheduled.

In lieu of this assessment, the Downeast Public Health Council identified five areas of need and created committees to address them:

• Palliative Care and Hospice
• Healthy Aging
• Cancer
• Health Literacy
• Emergency Preparedness

Those committees have developed doable objectives and strategies for 2021

For Reference, here are the 2017-2019 District Public Health Improvement Plan Priorities are:

- Build Better Cardiovascular Health (Improved Nutrtiion and Physical Activity)

- Improve Mental Health Awareness focused on Early Childhood Ages

- Prevent Drug and Alcohol Use

- Build Awareness for Prevention of Cancer