244606 Politics of Partnership and Policy Interventions: Using the County Health Rankings

Wednesday, November 2, 2011: 10:30 AM

Julie A. Willems Van Dijk, RN PhD , School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, Madison, WI
     
While health care reform efforts have focused the nation's attention on access to health care, there remains relatively little discussion about the many different factors that contribute to health. The County Health Rankings, released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute in 2010, are the first set of reports to rank the overall health of nearly every county in all 50 states. The Rankings describe health outcomes, measures of length of life and quality of life, and health factors that determine health outcomes, measures within four categories: health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors, and physical environment.

By maximizing media engagement, the Rankings are intended to raise the public's awareness about the many factors that influence health and serve as a “call to action” to broaden community health improvement efforts beyond the topic of health care access. The Rankings provide a platform for public health leaders to cultivate relationships with new and diverse partners who can work together to address the root causes of poor health outcomes in their community. This session will 1) highlight how to translate messages generated by the Rankings into community action; 2) discuss the political challenges in building multi-sector partnerships and strategies to overcome them; and 3) identify evidence-informed policies to improve health factors identified in the County Health Rankings model of population health improvement.

Learning Areas:
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related public policy
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe messages to translate the County Health Rankings into community action. 2. Describe political challenges in creating multi-sector partnerships and strategies to overcome them. 3. Identify evidence-informed policies to improve the health factors in the County Health Rankings population health model.

Keywords: Partnerships, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I was a public health practitioner for 21 years, serving as a public health nurse, director of nursing, and Health Officer. During my practice tenure, I worked in and led many multi-sector partnerships. In 2009, I joined the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and have been working on the Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health project as the Community Engagement Lead. In this role, I have consulted with numerous community leaders from multiple sectors that have informed the work I am proposing to present. I hold a PhD in Nursing from the University of Wisconsin with an emphasis in Public Health Leadership and conducted health policy research on the impact of Medicaid Prenatal Care Coordination on birth outcomes.
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.

See more of: Political Implications of Accreditation, Regionalization & County Health Rankings
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