 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
|
| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Roberta D. Welling, MS, MPH, Norman Trondsen, MA, and Jeffrey Sanchez. Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch, California Department of Health Services, 1515 Clay Street, Suite 1801, Oakland, CA 94612, 510-622-4870, rwelling@dhs.ca.gov
Many states contract with local entities to carry out lead poisoning prevention, surveillance and case management activities. When data collection is carried out by public health nurses, environmental health specialists and community health workers at the local level, how do we ensure that they receive adequate training in data collection methods? How do we get the information we need to evaluate program effectiveness? How do we work with our data when the realities of life in poor urban and rural communities interfere with surveillance and data collection?
Gaps in data are often related to particular issues in the local community. These may be social or cultural, or they may reflect poor communication between or within local entities and state government. People and bureaucracies are resistant to change, and new policies do not always filter down to the level of the people to whom they apply. Financial and budget considerations may prevent community public health staff from following procedures or complying with regulations they find complicated or irrelevant to their everyday activities.
Solutions to these problems include improving communication between state and field staff; facilitating collaboration among localities; involving local organizations in the development of data collection tools and seeking their input to identify barriers and training needs; helping local agencies find funding for activities that have been proven to increase screening and data collection for lead poisoning prevention; and involving health researchers in the study of unusual populations or cases. We will discuss specific problem areas and successes.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Lead, Local Public Health Agencies
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.