The Voice of the Public in Public Health Policy and Planning: the Role of Public Judgment

Community involvement with public health planning and implementation are vital to improving community health. There are a variety of community health models that are available. We describe these four models from the perspective of how they involve the broader community. These models are evaluated from a different perspective about linking the community and politics and agencies, that involves naming issues, framing options, public deliberation and public acting. We suggest ways that these models can be further refined to connect citizens to the processes that we use for community health improvement.