Organizer Profile
Arkansas Department of Health (ADH)

Arkansas Department of Health (ADH)

Little Rock, Arkansas, United States of America

ABOUT

Mission:
To protect and improve the health and well-being of all Arkansans.

Vision:
Optimal health for all Arkansans to achieve maximum personal, economic and social impact.

What is public health? One definition – from a 1988 report by the Institute of Medicine’s “The Future of Public Health” – is this: “Public health is the science and the art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and organizing community efforts to do the following: keep the environment clean, control communicable infections, educate individuals in personal hygiene (like hand washing for example), organize medical and nursing services for the early diagnosis and treatment of disease, and develop the social machinery to ensure everyone a healthy standard of living.”

To say that another way, public health is everything the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) does to protect and improve the health and well-being of all Arkansans – more than 100 services provided statewide by public health professionals to assure that your water is safe, your children have their immunizations, your restaurants are safe and your birth certificate is correct – to name just a few.

The ADH is a unified health department, with a main office in Little Rock and 94 local health units in each of the state’s 75 counties. We have Centers that oversee all that we do.

ADH Board:
The Arkansas State Board of Health was established by Act 96 of 1913, which serves as the charter or constitution for this Board. The Board has the general supervision and control of all matters pertaining to the health of the citizens of Arkansas.