Increasing capacity to promote health equity: Using evaluation to inform a professional development curriculum

According to RWJF's County Health Rankings, the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) account for at least 40% of health outcomes. What programs within the Wisconsin Division of Public Health (DPH) are doing to address the root causes of health inequity has been unclear. For this reason, in 2012 an assessment was conducted to determine what Bureau of Community Health Promotion programs are working on to promote health equity. Several commonalities resulted from the 2 surveys (n=62) and key informant interviews (n=8), including the desire for a better understanding of the approaches other programs were taking, moderate comfort in discussing/working on health disparity issues, and the desire for professional development in health equity. From these recurring themes a health equity curriculum was established and has been implemented. Building on NACCHO's “Roots of Health Inequity” 5 module online curriculum, the course introduces and expands upon the SDoH. Staff meet bi-monthly to watch videos, complete activities, participate in discussions, and hear presentations from community organizations involved in health equity work. Post module evaluations are being conducted and participating staff will be recognized by Bureau leadership at course end in January 2014. By enhancing staff knowledge about health equity internally, our external messages and programming are more apt to address concepts we might not have previously considered. The assessment and professional development curriculum explored in this presentation better equips Wisconsin public health professionals with the tools, knowledge and resources to use in exploring new health disparity issues and creating health equity focused program priorities.