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In this February 2022 file photo, city Councilman Ricky Burgess speaks at the City-County Building, Downtown. Behind him are, from left, Councilman Anthony Coghill; Council President Theresa Kail-Smith-Smith; Tracey Evans, executive director of the Wilkinsburg Community Development Corp.; and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald.
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Pittsburgh City Council introduces new legislation to improve health and safety of residents

Steve Mellon / Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh City Council introduces new legislation to improve health and safety of residents

As Pittsburgh City Council gets back into the swing of things after its month-long summer recess, Councilman Ricky Burgess introduced a resolution to create a pathway to address health, safety and well-being of city residents.

The Health and Safety Pittsburgh 2030 Initiative is based in part on the Healthy People 2020 initiative released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

They recently released the 2030 version of this report, which outlines national objectives to improve health over the next decade, by looking at issues like the social determinants of health, managing health conditions and certain behaviors among other categories.

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Each category of the government’s initiative breaks down ways each can improve. For example, under health conditions one of the goals listed is reducing drug and alcohol addiction. Within that are smaller goals, like increasing the number of people with substance abuse disorders that seek treatment each year or increasing the number of referrals to substance abuse treatment facilities.

Though a formal outline of goals has not been released, Pittsburgh’s initiative will “employ a public health approach,” to support residents by creating healthy and safe communities, according to the legislation.

“Health issues can only be effectively addressed and improved through an inclusive, community-wide public health approach,” the legislation said.

This will involve determining what problems plague city residents, the cause or risk factors associated with those problems, creating a strategy to solve them and then measuring the impact of those strategies.

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As part of that, the initiative will include education and training opportunities so residents, businesses and community-based organizations can participate in certain activities that will increase public health and equity outcomes, the legislation said.

To do this, the legislation also proposes establishing an advisory committee complied of nine health and safety experts to oversee the process.

Each of the nine council members will get to name a member of the committee.

Enacting the initiative would address some of the recommendations listed in the Transition Report that was presented to Mayor Ed Gainey in May.

“[The city] is strongly encouraged to develop a legislative agenda, programs, and policies to specifically address social determinants of health,” one such recommendation reads. “The City should invest in prevention methods that focus on intergenerational approaches to illness/wellness.”

Further discussion on the initiative most likely begin next week in City Council.

Hallie Lauer: hlauer@post-gazette.com

First Published: August 23, 2022, 6:25 p.m.

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In this February 2022 file photo, city Councilman Ricky Burgess speaks at the City-County Building, Downtown. Behind him are, from left, Councilman Anthony Coghill; Council President Theresa Kail-Smith-Smith; Tracey Evans, executive director of the Wilkinsburg Community Development Corp.; and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald.  (Steve Mellon / Post-Gazette)
Steve Mellon / Post-Gazette
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