Blurring Borders to Eliminate Disparities: Integrating Tobacco Control and Chronic Disease Voices for a stronger public health infrastructure

Eliminating tobacco related chronic disease disparities requires a health promotion approach that emphasizes capacity building and infrastructure development. In order to effectively reach and serve those affected, our public health infrastructure must be strong, and cohesive.

The Pennsylvania initiative entitled Bringing Evidence-Based Research Initiatives to Disparate Groups with Evaluation (BE-A-BRIDGE) has developed a multidisciplinary collaborative that leverages its collective resources to improve Pennsylvania's public health infrastructure; by building the capacity of: (1) local communities, its stakeholders and healthcare service providers to deliver effective/culturally appropriate interventions that are evidence based and follow best practice guidelines, and (2) local and state governments to identify, monitor, evaluate and partner with those serving the needs of disparately affected communities. A critical strategy used to accomplish this was the development of Regional Advisory Councils (RAC). Councils were developed in each of Pennsylvania's 6 identified community health districts. Each RAC consists of individuals representing tobacco control and chronic disease prevention/management. The RAC model enables BE A BRIDGE to integrate tobacco control and chronic disease while simultaneously build public health infrastructure. Additionally, RACs serves as the conduit for information from government to community and vice versa; critical feedback can be communicated about the specific needs of their regions. RACs have led to increased: 1) awareness of organizational needs- thereby providing the ability to tailor capacity building efforts- 2) collaboration among tobacco control and chronic disease programs- thereby minimizing program costs by maximizing collaborative efforts- and 3) insight into the diverse geographical and population-based needs of their communities.