Preventive medicine is the key to the future success of our health care delivery system. By taking steps to reduce the incidence of illness and disease, we are also reducing the need for hospitalization or prolonged medical treatment. This can only be accomplished through a coordinated program of public health information and education directed at both medical professionals and the general public.
Today, therefore, I am directing the Commissioner of Health to establish a new unit within his department, the function of this new unit to be the broadening of public understanding of health problems, the expansion of public knowledge of solutions to those problems and the widening of public participation in and support of public health programs and services.
In order to facilitate and improve access to health resources, I, Hugh L. Carey, Governor of the State of New York, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the Laws of the State of New York, do hereby direct the Commissioner of Health to establish a new unit within the Department of Health, to be the Public Health Education Unit.
It shall be the function of the Public Health Education Unit to:
examine the role of State, local and voluntary agencies in health education;
widely disseminate information on health problems, issues and solutions;
identify and advocate consumer health concerns for the Department; and encourage the development of education services in medical care settings, industrial settings and all settings in which the greatest number of persons can be reached.
In particular, the Department of Health, through this new unit, shall direct educational efforts to reaching the economically disadvantaged who most often are outside the mainstream of education and communication routinely provided by local health departments.
The Interagency Council on Critical Health Problems is hereby transferred from the Department of Education to the Department of Health, in order to coordinate its activities with the Public Health Education Unit established by this Order. With respect to any right, obligation or remedy heretofore existing as to the Interagency on Critical Health Problems, the Interagency Council on Critical Health Problems in the Health Department shall be deemed and held to constitute the continuation of the Interagency Council on Critical Health Problems in the Department of Education.
All appropriations or reappropriations together with any Federal funds advanced to the Department of Education for the Interagency Council on Critical Health Problems, to the extent of remaining unexpended or unencumbered balances thereof, whether allocated or unallocated and whether obligated or unobligated, shall be transferred to and made available for use by the Department of Health for the same purposes for which originally appropriated or advanced.
Signed: Hugh L. CareyDated: May 15, 1975
N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. Tit. 9 § 3.11