Disability and public health: Expanding workforce development opportunities through academic-community partnerships

Healthy People 2020 has a goal to promote the health and well-being of people with disabilities and a specific objective to increase the proportion of U.S. MPH programs that offer graduate level courses in disability and health. Healthy Alaskans 2020 includes an objective to reduce the number of Alaskans without access to high quality and affordable health care. In 2013, a new graduate elective course, Disability and Public Health, was offered in the MPH Program at the University of Alaska. The distance-delivered course was designed with the following objectives: explore disability issues in the context of public health principles, programs and policies; examine the social determinants of health among people with disabilities using population data; provide an interdisciplinary, Alaskan perspective on issues related to services for individuals with disabilities; and integrate public health principles to enhance health promotion initiatives for people with disabilities.  Practicing public health professionals across Alaska as well as other states in the Northwest expressed interest in the course, but were not able to participate due to fiscal and time constraints.  In 2014, responding to the wide interest from practicing professionals, a 1 1/2 day video teleconference CE workshop, Disability and Public Health, was developed in collaboration with community agency partners, the MPH Program, and the Alaska LEND Program.  With registrations from 11 locations, the workshop was delivered face-to-face and in two distance sites. Evaluation findings addressing knowledge and integration into practice, along with future strategies for workforce development in rural and remote areas, will be presented.