Online Program

LI Course
Oral

Statement of Purpose and Institute Overview: The purpose of this course is to help public health practitioners and their partners develop cross-sector health systems capable of solving complex social and public health problems. Systems thinking is providing new insights about the limited effectiveness of single interventions on social and public health problems that are intertwined and rooted in mutually reinforcing afflictions and conditions. These ‘syndemics’ (or synergistically ‘linked epidemics’) create an undue burden of disease that far exceeds the effects of single afflictions added together. Although public health practitioners are increasingly being encouraged to adopt a syndemic approach to their work, to date there has been little formal guidance and few structured tools to help them in this effort. The structured assessment and planning framework taught in this course is grounded in systems theory and place-based approaches designed to help stakeholders and decision makers bring research to practice and use cross-sector knowledge to foster comprehensive and measurable health system development at all levels. The emphasis on systems theory stems from research indicating that preventing or addressing a syndemic requires close coordination of efforts across system partners and stakeholders to use synergy to generate collective desired outcomes that greatly exceed the sum of what can be achieved by individual system members alone. The emphasis on place-based assessment and planning is critical to success because intervening effectively in a system requires an in-depth understanding of how the system ‘works’ and an intimate knowledge of: its history, culture, and values; the relationships between individuals and institutions; the economic and political climate; the demographics of resident populations; the capacity, readiness, and political will of system members and leaders to define certain behaviors or conditions as problematic and act to address them; and the resources that are available to support action. The framework helps systems and their members prioritize assessment results and identify the key leverage points for system development, then use those findings to develop targeted goals and objectives; measurable outcomes; implementation and evaluation benchmarks; and sustainability/strategic financing plans. Participants will engage in interactive discussion of the tools to identify how they might be used or adapted within their own communities, regions, states, tribes or nations, and explore case studies of groups that have used the tools to create strategic and sustainable health systems that can set collective priorities, access a diverse array of resources, design and implement comprehensive interventions, and achieve population-level improvements in health and well-being.

Session Objectives: Explain how systems theory and place-based approaches can be used to understand and support health system development across different areas of practice. Describe key indicators and methodologies for assessing and prioritizing health system development. Explain how to use assessment findings to guide—and monitor the outcomes of—sustainable cross-sector health system planning and development processes.

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