Preparing for transformation: Developing local health department capacity to build healthy communities

The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 provides a unique opportunity to fund prevention programs. The Prevention and Public Health Fund authorized under ACA provides a consistent stream of funding opportunities to build healthier communities. While this is a win for public health overall, local health departments (LHDs) need to ensure adequate infrastructure to successfully compete for these opportunities. The National Association of County and City Health Officials, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently released a policy brief, A Roadmap for Chronic Disease Prevention, which identifies the core capacities that all LHDs need in order to build healthy communities through policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change strategies. This session builds on the Roadmap by detailing the paradigm shift in infrastructure development, which includes changes in leadership, administration, and staffing needed to bring about community transformation through PSE. In addition, this presentation will describe specific leadership skills, staff competencies, and staffing mix across LHDs of different jurisdiction size, and identify the kinds of data, tools, information, and alliances that local health officers need to assemble and engage for successful prevention funding. The presentation will conclude with a discussion about strategies LHDs can employ to build capacity at all current funding levels. (CDC Disclaimer: The findings and conclusions in this presentation are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.)