About the Local Public Health Component
LPH Background
The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) awards Local Public Health Component Tobacco Grants to local health departments using the unified grant award process. Funds are awarded based on a formula established by legislation: 50% based on the proportion of under-age tobacco users within a jurisdiction compared to all such users in the State; and 50% based on proportion of all tobacco users in the jurisdiction (under-age youth and adults) compared to all such users in the State.
Each Local Health Officer (LHO) is required to establish a Community Health Coalition (CHC) that represents the ethnic diversity of that jurisdiction. With assistance from the CHC, each LHO develops and submits a local comprehensive tobacco use prevention and cessation plan as part of the jurisdiction’s application for its local tobacco grant. The plan and local goals and objectives are subject to approval by DHMH.
The Department provides oversight, technical assistance and training to the local tobacco use prevention and cessation programs, and ensuring that their efforts are coordinated with the statewide program activities. Within each jurisdiction, the local public health component resources are allocated to the following elements: community, school-based, enforcement, and cessation.