• If you care about your community’s health, our waters and our forests, then you can submit public comments to the current draft objectives on the Healthy People Public Comment Page.
• If you care about nutrition, obesity and physical activity, then you can submit public comments to the current draft objectives on the Healthy People Public Comment Page.
• If you care about chronic diseases, including prevention, treatment and cures, submit public comments to the current draft objectives on the Healthy People Public Comment Page.
• If you care about these and many other issues, then you can make a difference by submitting a comment to the Healthy People 2020 objectives.

Submit a Public Comment

Your participation will shape Healthy People 2020 and the nation’s health agenda. Since public comments go on the record, you will have contributed to setting our nation’s health objectives.

• Submit a public comment to the current draft objectives on the Healthy People Public Comment Page.
• Grab a Web badge to show you care about the Healthy People 2020 process.

Stay Involved and Informed

For more information and to stay updated:

• Subscribe to the Healthy People listserv for the latest information on Healthy People 2020 and to receive e-mail notices of related news, events, publications, and more!
• Join the Healthy People Consortium to become an active supporter of Healthy People.

More About Healthy People

Since 1979, Healthy People has set and monitored national health objectives to meet a broad range of health needs, encourage collaborations across sectors, guide individuals toward making informed health decisions, and measure the impact of our prevention activity. The Healthy People process aims to be inclusive and its strength is directly tied to collaboration.

Since its inception, Healthy People has become a broad-based, public engagement initiative with thousands of citizens helping to shape it at every step along the way. Drawing on the expertise of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2020, public input and a Federal Interagency Workgroup, Healthy People 2020 will provide a framework to address risk factors and determinants of health and the diseases and conditions that affect our communities–and in effect move us toward a healthier nation.

Disclosure: ODPHP is a client that I work with at IQ Solutions. However, I genuinely feel that Healthy People 2020 plays an important role in setting our Nation’s health agenda and even contributed comments myself, especially when it comes to chronic diseases and health communications.

Even U.S. President George Bush sent out his 1st Twitter with the help of Sen. John Culberson when Sen. Culberson was showing the President both Twitter and Qik. You can see it here!

Government Agencies

For government agencies, most often, the Twitter account is in conjunction with the government’s related blog. So, now, we’re getting government agencies who are not only blogging, but using TwitterFeed to promote the posts through Twitter. I am still rounding up info. to find government accounts on Jaiku and/FriendFeed.

@dipnote – The U.S. Department of State

@govgab – USA.gov, component of their blog, GovGab

@greenversations – The Environmental Protection Agency

@TSABlogTeam – Transportation Security Administration, Based on TSA’s Evolution of Security Blog

@USAgov – USA.gov

@GobiernoUSA – USA.gov’s Spanish Portal

@womenshealth – Womenshealth.gov

@NASA – Well, it’s NASA =) Check out NASA’s Twitter box and find various other NASA Twitter feeds about certain missions including @MarsPhoenix, @nasacolab, and 13 other NASA related feeds!

Government Officials

@BarackObama – Barack OBama

@joebiden – Sen. Joe Biden

@JimDeMint – Sen. Jim DeMint

@SenatorDodd – Sen. Chris Dodd

@ChuckGrassley – Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa)

@frankwatson – Sen. Frank Watson

@jiminhofe – Sen. Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma)

@johnculberson – Congressman John Culberson

@MarkUdall – Congressman Mark Udall (Colorado) On his website, he is even implementing his own mini-social network for citizens to join, blog and join county groups!

@TomLatham – Congressman Tom Latham (Iowa)

@neilabercrombie – Congressman Neil Abercrombie (Hawaii)

@ThadMcCotter – Congressman Thad McCotter (Michigan)

@CongJoeWilson – Congressman Joe Wilson

@schwarzenegger – California Gov. Arnold Schwarsenegger

@GovernorGibbons – Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons

@govgranholm – Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm

@johncherry – Michigan Lieutenant Gov. John Cherry

@PeterKinder – Missouri Lieutenant Gov. Peter Kinder

U.S. States

@coloradogov – Colorado Government

@kygov – Kentucky Government

@vermontgov – Vermont Government

@UtahGov – Utah Government

@SCGOV – South Carolina Government

@www_maine_gov – Maine Government

@rigov – Rhode Island Government

Other

@TheWhiteHouse – The White House

@HouseFloor – U.S. House of Representatives

@SenateFloor – The U.S. Senate

@NRSC – National Republican Senatorial Committee

@secgen – The U.N. Secretary General

If I missed any, please let me know and I’ll add them to the list!

Ok, what are your thoughts? Is this a good thing? What does this mean, and how will it affect or impact constituent and government relations? LOVE to hear, =)

photo cred: Flickr, vagabondrhythm