183110 Partnering with Community Health Councils to Assess Systems Change

Monday, October 27, 2008: 3:30 PM

Victoria Sanchez, DrPH , Masters in Public Health Program, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Christina Carrillo, MS , Office of Health Promotion/Community Health Improvement, New Mexico Department of Health/Public Health Division/Health Systems Bureau, Santa Fe, NM
Alida Brown , Quay County Health Council, Tucumcari, NM
Ron Hale, MSEd , Office of Health Promotion/Community Health Improvement, New Mexico Department of Health/Public Health Division/Health Systems Bureau, Santa Fe, NM
Nina Wallerstein, DrPH , Masters in Public Health Program, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Mark Andrews, MA , Masters in Public Health Program, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
In New Mexico, 37 health councils, covering 32 counties and five tribal health coalitions, have been legislatively mandated and funded by the Department of Health to engage in local Community Health Improvement (CHI) processes and partnerships. The CHI process is a deliberate approach in which communities and the NM DOH share responsibility and accountability for increasing community capacity to improve community health. The approach emphasizes council development, planning and priority setting, and council/community actions to promote community health and enhance health improvement efforts. Since August 2007, the Office of Health Promotion/Community Health Improvement (NM DOH) and the health councils have partnered with the University of New Mexico (UNM) to develop and implement a statewide evaluation of the councils' impact on community health systems.

We report on the first two stages in the planned multi-year evaluation, including the identification of common, overarching elements in the councils; the development and refinement of the program logic model; and a pilot evaluation of selected systems and capacity outcomes and indicators developed through a participatory evaluation process.

We emphasize the participatory processes used to engage health council members and council coordinators in refining intermediate systems and capacity outcomes and identifying indicators for these outcomes. We also discuss the challenges of a participatory evaluation approach in a large, rural state and the benefits of such an approach to document and assess the contribution of community health councils in a health improvement process.

Learning Objectives:
1. Participants will be able to identify at least two key principles of the community health improvement process. 2. Participants will recognize how local public health systems can be organized to influence community systems change. 3. Participants will identify the main challenges of balancing state health priorities with the development of local or regional actions to promote community change. 4. Participants will identify the challenges and benefits of using a participatory evaluation process.

Keywords: Participatory Research, Community Collaboration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am Principal Investigator of the evaluation contract with the Dept of Health.
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.