Denver

Denver

The mission of the Community Health Promotion Division (CHPD) of Denver Public Health is to make sustainable changes that achieve optimal health by investing in Denver communities. The CHPD provides population level services which further our efforts to prevent chronic diseases and unintentional injuries, provide behavioral health and tobacco prevention and education services, and to promote maternal, child and youth health.

We accomplish our goals by leading collaborative changes in policy, systems and environments that result in improved health and by responding innovatively with programs that meet community needs. The CHPD has a strong commitment to community involvement in order to achieve health equity in the Denver metro area.

Who Are Were

Description and Timeline

•1876: Colorado becomes a state.

•1876-1881: Dr. Harrison Lemen is county physician and oversees the County Hospital.

•1879-1880: First typhoid epidemic strikes Denver.

•1881: Fight between homeopaths and allopaths over control of Arapahoe County Hospital.

•1884: The county’s first Poor Farm, consisting of 220 acres, opens near the Globe Smelting Company.

•1887: Dr. Herbert McLauthlin elected county physician at a salary of $2,400 per year. Later he was made head of the city’s Department of Health.

•1887: The Colorado Training School for Nurses opens.

•1888: Augusta Erickson is the first graduate of The Colorado Training School for Nurses.

•1889: A new Nurse’s Home is built. Costing roughly $30,000, it’s a three-story brick structure with a long sun porch.

•1889: Patient census is 91

Denver Health is a comprehensive, integrated organization with multiple components. Go to https://www.denverhealth.org/

Timeline About Denver Public Health

Notable Achievements

  • Read our 2017 Denver Public Health Annual Report, “Leveraging Partnerships and Engaging the Community to Improve the Health For All“, to learn about how we are working with partners from across the region to make Denver a healthy community for all people.
  • Read our 2016 Denver Public Health Annual Report, “A Report to the Community“, to learn about how we collaborate with partners to fulfill our mission of improving health with our community.
  • Denver Public Health and Denver’s Department of Public Health and Environment received national accreditation for the City and County of Denver through the Public Health Accreditation Board in March 2017.
  • Denver Public Health was recognized as a founding partner of the Colorado Healthy Hospital Compact on November 14, 2014.
  • Denver Public Health was named 2013 Local Health Department of the Year by the National Association of County and City Health Officials. (NACCHO)
  • Denver Public Health received a “Model Practice Award” at the 2012 Annual conference of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)