The ten essential public health services are used throughout the MAPP process. The ten essential public health services framework was developed in 1994 as a method for better identifying and describing the core processes used in public health to promote health and prevent disease. All public health responsibilities (whether conducted by the local public health agency or another organization within the community) can be categorized into one of the services.  The MAPP model was developed in 1999-2000 to be used as a guide for local and state public health systems in their efforts to achieve the optimal performance standards of the National Public Health Standards Program.

The Ten Essential Public Health Services are:

1. Monitor health status to identify community health problems.
2. Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community.
3. Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues.
4. Mobilize community partnerships to identify and solve health problems.
5. Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts.
6. Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety.
7. Link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable.
8. Assure a competent public health and personal health care workforce.
9. Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services.
10. Research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems.

Further information about each essential service — including a description of the types of activities found in each — can be found in the Local Health System Performance Measurement instrument (used in both MAPP's Local Health System Assessment, as well as the National Public Health Performance Standards Program).

1988        Institute of Medicine (IOM) published its landmark report The Future of Public Health. The report defined public health as what society does collectively to assure the conditions for people to be healthy and presented strong evidence to indicate that the public health system—the organizational mechanism for achieving the best population health—was in disarray. Although the report described the public health system as the governmental public health agencies and “the associated efforts of private and voluntary organizations and individuals,” it focused specifically on ways to strengthen governmental public health infrastructure.

1994        The Core Functions and Essential Public Health Services provide the fundamental framework for the public health activities that should be undertaken in all communities. The Core Public Health Functions Steering Committee developed the framework for the Ten Essential Services of Public Health in 1994. This steering committee included representatives from US Public Health Service agencies and other major public health organizations. While the Core Functions of Public Health provide the guiding principles for the practice of public health, the Ten Essential Services of Public Health are the actions that should be taken to guarantee that community health needs are met.

2000        Department of Health and Human Services launched Healthy People 2010, a comprehensive, nationwide health promotion and disease prevention agenda.  Healthy People 2010 contains 467 objectives designed to serve as a road map for improving the health of all people in the United States during the first decade of the 21st Century.

2001     MAPP is the acronym for Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships. Developed by NACCHO and CDC and released in February 2001, it is a designed to guide communities through a health improvement process. The MAPP model provides a framework for public health practice in accordance with the Core Functions and Ten Essential Services

2002        The Committee on Assuring the Health of the Public in the 21st Century was convened with the charge to create a framework for assuring population health in the United States that would be more inclusive than that of the 1988 report and that could be effectively communicated to and acted upon by diverse communities. In the new report, the Committee uses the term “public health system” in a manner that builds on the 1988 usage, but reflects present realities. The Future of the Public’s Health examines both the governmental component of the public health system and the potential contributions of other sectors and entities.  The Committee decided to embrace the vision articulated by Healthy People 2010, the health initiative for the nation—healthy people in healthy communities. The report focuses on the governmental public health infrastructure and several potential partners in the public health system, namely, the community, the health care delivery system, employers and business, the media, and academia.