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Local Environmental Public Health System Assessment

The Farifax County Health Department's Division of Environmental Health concluded the initial phase of a Local Environmental Public Health System Assessment (LEnvPHSA) in November 2010. The process was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the purpose of providing a standardized approach toward evaluating environmental health programs against a set of nationally recognized Environmental Health Program Standards.

The National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO) evaluated this process as Fairfax County will be the first jurisdiction in the United States to apply LEnvPHSA to the extent that the agency is planning.

Assessment Final Report

The Local Environmental Public Health System Assessment (Assessment) was selected as the instrument that would be used to inform the broader Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) initiative.

This Assessment instrument consists of ten model Standards, which are based on the ten Essential Services. Each model standard is evaluated against a set of 3-12 assessment questions that serve as measures of performance. The responses to these questions indicate how well the model standards - which represent the spectrum of environmental public health activities that should be provided by the local environmental health system in any jurisdiction -are being met. A total of 38 participants representing 13 organizations/agencies participated in this Assessment.

View Local Environmental Public Health System Assessment final report (PDF).

Community Environmental Health Profile

The process aims to bring all of the diverse components of the environmental health system together to promote continuous improvement of the national environmental public health system and foster improvement at the local level through the following efforts: