Governmental Public Health departments are responsible for creating and maintaining conditions that keep people healthy. At the local level, the governmental public health presence or "local health department," can take many forms. Furthermore, each community has a "public health system" comprising of individuals and public and private entities that are engaged in activities that affect the public's health.

Regardless of its governance or structure, regardless of where specific authorities are vested or where particular services are delivered, everyone, no matter where they live, should reasonably expect the local health department to meet certain standards.

A Functional Local Health Department

• Understands the specific health issues confronting the community, and how physical, behavioral, environmental, social, and economic conditions affect them.
• Investigates health problems and health threats.
• Prevents, minimizes, and contains adverse health effects from communicable diseases, disease outbreaks from unsafe food and water, chronic diseases, environmental hazards, injuries, and risky health behaviors.
• Leads planning and response activities for public health emergencies.
• Collaborates with other local responders and with state and federal agencies to intervene in other emergencies with public health significance (e.g., natural disasters).
• Implements health promotion programs.
• Engages the community to address public health issues.
• Develops partnerships with public and private healthcare providers and institutions, community-based organizations, and other government agencies (e.g. schools, recreation) engaged in services that effect health to collectively identify, alleviate, and act on the sources of public health problems.
• Coordinates the public health system's efforts in an intentional, non-competitive, and non-duplicative manner.
• Addresses health disparities.
• Serves as an essential resource for local governing bodies and policymakers on up-to-date public health laws and policies.
• Provides science-based, timely, and culturally competent health information and health alerts to the media and to the community.
• Provides its expertise to others who treat or address issues of public health significance.
• Ensures compliance with public health laws and ordinances, using enforcement authority when appropriate.
• Employs well-trained staff members who have the necessary resources to implement best practices and evidence-based programs and interventions.
• Facilitates research efforts, when approached by researchers, that benefit the community.
• Uses and contributes to the evidence base of public health.
• Strategically plans its services and activities, evaluates performance and outcomes, and makes adjustments as needed to continually improve its effectiveness, enhance the community's health status, and meet the community's expectations.

The Walpole Board of Health embraces this definition and national standards both as a means of working with their state health departments, community and governing bodies to develop a more robust governmental public health capacity and as a means of holding itself accountable to the residents of Walpole.