176165 Developing an occupational health surveillance needs assessment in NH: A stakeholder driven process

Tuesday, October 28, 2008: 3:00 PM

Karla R. Armenti, ScD , New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Occupational Health Surveillance Program, Concord, NH
In the face of meager resources for occupational health surveillance in New Hampshire, we have coalesced key occupational health stakeholders in the state to initiate a collaborative approach to establish a minimum occupational health surveillance program. This included developing a systematic needs assessment to inventory existing data sources and identify information gaps.

Several meetings with the newly developed Occupational Health Surveillance Committee were held during 2007 and 2008. Key stakeholder representation included public health disease epidemiologists, occupational safety and health professionals, occupational medical providers, industrial hygienists, union members, business and local government, insurance industry, health officers, local health departments, OSHA enforcement and consultation, and the Department of Labor (workers' compensation). A subcommittee was formed to develop a work plan to meet goals and objectives. Initial steps were taken to develop a minimum occupational health surveillance program, including analysis and evaluation of several of the NIOSH/CSTE occupational health indicators. The main goal of this effort is to understand where the priority areas of concern are for NH and our workers, and where best to put our resources in reducing the magnitude and severity of work related injury and illness. The project will culminate in a statewide report and a one-day educational workshop for the broader community by the end of the year.

Learning Objectives:
1) Understand the challenges and opportunities in developing an occupational health surveillance program in a small state with few resources. 2) Describe the process of coalescing key occupational health stakeholders in planning and initiating a minimum occupational health surveillance program. 3) Participants will learn from this experience and be able to apply similar strategies to develop their own state surveillance programs in light of minimal resources.

Keywords: Occupational Surveillance, Assessments

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I manage the Health Statistics & Data Management Program for the State of NH which is responsible for performing surveillance on a variety of health conditions. My background in occupational health allows me to lead efforts to create an occupational health surveillance program.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.