LI Course
CE Hours: 3 contact hours

Statement of Purpose and Institute Overview: The purpose of this 3 hour course is to introduce participants to current tools and methods used to measure policy, environment, and systems change for chronic disease prevention. Policy, environment, and systems change is increasingly emphasized as an important complement to individually-oriented approaches to promote healthy behavior, prevent chronic disease, and eliminate health disparities. However, state and local public health practitioners working in settings with different capacity levels and resources may find it challenging to identify or develop tools to measure policy, environment, and systems change. Examples will be drawn from both the clinical/outpatient health services sector and from non-traditional community-based sectors (e.g., urban planning/built environment, transportation, food systems, and law enforcement). Through interactive exercises, lecture, small group work, and open discussion, participants will become familiar with the policy change process and how they might adapt measurement tools to fit their own local priorities and contexts. The workshop will provide an overview of the public health Essential Services of policy development and assessment, and will promote skills enhancement in measurement of health status, basic epidemiological concepts, and policy evaluation. The workshop will integrate epidemiology, public policy, and advocacy perspectives and share insights from research, public health practice, and law. Educational objectives include enabling participants to identify available measurement tools, to describe how to match tools to specific stages of the policy process in local contexts, and to build capacity for measuring and evaluating policy, environment, and systems change.

Session Objectives: 1. Describe the policy process; 2. Discuss how to match measurement tools to specific stages of the policy process in local contexts; 3. Identify appropriate measurement tools and discuss examples from the field; 4. Discuss possibilities for building community capacity and utilizing community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods to develop measurement strategies; 5. Identify unique evaluation challenges and discuss solutions for addressing them.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH) , Masters Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES)