Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Team (CDIPT): Working in a multidisciplinary team to foster chronic disease and injury prevention integration in a local health department

The leading causes of death in the US – chronic diseases and unintentional injuries – often get the least attention and funding in local public health agencies. Tri-County Health Department (TCHD), Colorado's largest local health department, has several programs that address various topics of chronic disease or injury prevention; however these efforts were fragmented and there was no communication or coordination among them. To address this, TCHD formed the Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Team (CDIPT), a multidisciplinary team with representatives from many programs and divisions, including Environmental Health, Nursing, WIC, Tobacco Prevention, Older Adult Fall Prevention and others. This team collaboratively identified a single point of contact to coordinate their efforts; inventoried the chronic disease and injury prevention activities and materials throughout the agency; and identified areas of overlap and opportunities for coordination and integration at little or no cost. This process has reduced duplication of efforts and increased the use of consistent messaging throughout the agency. CDIPT also developed and implemented a “Key Theme” strategy to integrate an underrepresented chronic disease or injury prevention topic through multiple divisions and programs using existing staff and funding. This novel approach allows TCHD to expand its chronic disease and injury prevention efforts without relying on additional funding. The first chosen key theme was fall prevention. In 2009, fall prevention was integrated into several diverse programs across the agency, through interventions tailored to each program's target audience. For example, in the WIC Program, the focus was preventing childhood falls in the clinic and in the home; the cardiovascular disease screening program focused on balance testing for middle-aged women. In several instances, these key theme efforts led to sustainable policy changes. This integration model can be useful to organizations seeking to increase efficiency and coordination among programs, and expand activities at minimal cost.