257832 Introducing public health workers to policy, systems, and environmental change strategies: A web-based approach

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Andrew Wapner, DO, MPH , Bureau Of Healthy Ohio, The Ohio Department of Health, Columbus, OH
Carol Smathers, MPH, MS , College of Public Health, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Michele Shough , Division of Prevention and Health Promotion, Bureau of Healthy Ohio, Ohio Department of Health, Columbus, OH
Phyllis Pirie, PhD , Prevention Research Center, The Ohio State University College of Public Health, Columbus, OH
Elizabeth G. Klein, PhD, MPH , Division of Health Behavior & Health Promotion, Ohio State University College of Public Health, Columbus, OH
Gail L. Kaye, PhD, LPCC, RD, LD , Health Behavior and Health Promotion, The Ohio State University, College of Public Health, Columbus, OH
Anand Khurma, MA , College of Public Health, Center for Public Health Practice, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
        
The success of public health practitioners to assess, plan and implement policy, system and environmental change strategies depends on a basic understanding of the impact of the social and structural environments on health behaviors. Yet several recent assessments of the public health system in Ohio demonstrated a need for accessible and affordable trainings focusing on the Essential Public Health Services of informing and empowering people, developing policy, and mobilizing communities. To meet these needs, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) partnered with The Ohio State University (OSU) College of Public Health's Prevention Research Center (PRC) and Center for Public Health Practice (CPHP) to create an online training course titled “Improving Health through Policy, System and Environmental Change.” The course increases participant awareness of policy work by reviewing the social determinants of health, the importance of approaching health promotion through a social ecological approach and the value of implementing strategies following the Health Impact Pyramid. The interactive, web-based course combines voice, text and video and will be available free of charge to Ohio's public health workforce. The partnership formed between ODH, the PRC and the CPHP is a unique approach to building statewide public health capacity. The collaboration brought together the PRC's academic expertise in health promotion, CPHP's experience with online public health training, and ODH's practical experience with policy, system and environmental change and large network of public health partners. This training will serve as an introduction to subsequent competency-based trainings to be sponsored by the CPHP and ODH.

Learning Areas:
Other professions or practice related to public health
Public health or related education
Social and behavioral sciences
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Identify training strategies for raising awareness among public health workers about the impacts of policy, system, and environmental changes on health behaviors. Describe the benefits of academic and state health department partnerships in the development of policy, system, and environmental change training resources for public health practitioners.

Keywords: Health Promotion, Training

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Chronic Disease Medical Director for the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) and a Master of Public Health student at the Ohio State University (OSU) College of Public Health (CPH). I work with partners within ODH and across Ohio to improve the capacity of public health workers to approach chronic disease prevention through strategeis grounding in health promotion theory and following the Health Impact Pyramid.
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.

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