Public Health Accreditation

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Public Health Accreditation
Policy-maker Outreach Workshop
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• Why Engage with
• Policy-makers?

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Pyramids
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Hans Rosling
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• How to Motivate
• Policy-makers To Support Accreditation

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• Guidelines for Motivating Support 
• 1. Lead with a value or benefit others care
  about
• 2. Illustrate the barrier, and the solution
• 3. Follow with support points
• 4. Paint the picture using a story

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•  1. Lead with a value or benefit others care
  about
• We all want our communities to be healthy places
  to live. We want access to clean air and water,
  safe walking routes, and protections from
  emerging health threats, like H1N1 flu.
• Local public health departments take a leading
  role in creating and running the activities and
  programs that provide these safeguards and that
  keep people healthy and safe from disease and
  injury.

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• 2. Illustrate the barrier, and the solution
• But right now these types of services and their
  quality vary greatly, depending on where you
  live.
• Without consistent standards, people in different
  states and towns dont know exactly what they can
  expect their public health departments to
  provide. And policy-makers and communities cant
  be assured that scarce public health dollars are
  being spent as effectively as they could be.
• National accreditation of health departments is
  designed to change this. Led by local, state, and
  tribal public health departments, accreditation
  will ensure that people are receiving the highest
  quality services possible to promote and protect
  their health no matter where they live.

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• 3. Follow with support points
• Access to basic services
• Accreditation will ensure that health departments
  are providing basic services to help every
  community stay healthythings like a
  24-hour/7-day-a-week contact system for reporting
  health threats or a plan for responding to a
  health emergency.
• Research has already shown that accredited health
  departments responded more effectively to the
  H1N1 outbreak because they had response plans in
  place when the outbreak occurred.

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• 3. Follow with support points
• More accountable
• Because accreditation drives health departments
  to link programs and decisions to the needs of
  their communities, it will lead to more
  responsive service and healthier people.
• For example, an accredited health department
  working in a community with a high
  infant-mortality rate may respond by ensuring
  that low-income pregnant women living in that
  community are receiving pre-natal services
  beginning in their first trimester. A health
  department working in a community without a low
  infant mortality rate would not need to devote as
  many resources to that particular issue.

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• 3. Follow with support points
• More data, more efficient
• By emphasizing data collection and measurement,
  accreditation helps public health departments
  prioritize services and track how well theyre
  doing. Ultimately, that means more effective
  programs and less waste.

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• 3. Follow with support points
• Increased coordination
• The accreditation process will ensure that public
  health departments are working hand-in-hand with
  community organizations, businesses and other
  government agencies to plan the best approaches
  to improving the health of the people they serve.

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• 3. Follow with support points (that answer tough
  questions)
• In establishing greater consistency, will
  accreditation stifle community innovation or keep
  communities from responding to their specific
  needs?
• Actually, it will help promote both of those
  things. The accreditation process is based on the
  fact that health needs are different in each
  state and community.
• While there are some basic things every health
  department needs to do to keep people
  healthylike offer prevention programs and
  respond to health threatswhich programs they
  offer and how they respond will ultimately depend
  on the specific needs and characteristics of
  their community.
• For example, if a community has a high infant
  mortality rate, the public health department may
  want to invest in preventing infant mortality by
  providing pre-natal care to low-income pregnant
  women.

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• 3. Follow with support points (that answer tough
  questions)
• Doesnt CDC or EPA or FDA or USDA already do
  what accreditation is trying to do?
• No organization does this yet on a national
  basis.
• Unlike our school systems, hospitals, police
  departments and fire departments, there is not a
  national accreditation system for our health
  departments.
• There arent national guidelines to measure
  whether they are doing their work efficiently and
  effectively.
• Yet, accreditation is something that health
  leaders have been calling for since 2003.
• Now, with accreditation, for the first time ever,
  people in every community from Maine to Alaska
  will can expect the same high level of public
  health services no matter where they live.

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• 3. Follow with support points (that answer tough
  questions)
• Accreditation processes are always expensive.
  How much is this going to cost? Who is going to
  pay for this?
• Total costs will be determined by how far along
  health departments are when they enter the
  accreditation process. They will have different
  needs based on how they operate and what
  standards and pre-requisites they might already
  meet.
• Many health departments have already completed
  the pre-requisites such as the community health
  assessment, community health improvement plan and
  the agency strategic plan because theyre
  already part of its basic activities.

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• 3. Follow with support points (that answer tough
  questions)
• Accreditation processes are always expensive.
  How much is this going to cost? Who is going to
  pay for this?
• A fee will go to the national accreditation board
  to guide health departments through the process
  and certify their accreditation.
• Much of the perceived costs of accreditation will
  actually be part of a health departments ongoing
  efforts to improve their performance and
  effectiveness.

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• Painting the Picture of Accreditation

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Building Blocks to Accreditation Lessons from
Bethlehem, Pa
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Partnership
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H1N1
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Health Needs Assessment
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Online Food Inspection
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• Strategic Policy Outreach Plan of Attack

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Key Points

• Accreditation is a national campaign
• Must have a strategy
• Goal is to leave here with next steps in mind
• Case Study Soda Tax

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Prioritize Key Audiences

• Policy-makers
• Media
• General Public/Voters

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Understanding of Issue

• Varies

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Opposition/Support

• Allies health professionals, pediatricians,
  nutritionists, public health advocacy groups,
  budget analysts
• Opponents small business, grocers, anti-tax
  groups, American Beverage Association

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Key Messages

• Research shows that consumption of soft drinks is
  associated with poor diet, increasing rates of
  obesity and risk for diabetes. These links are
  especially strong for children.
• Obesity is a complex problem that will take a
  myriad of solutions.
• Taxing sodas and other sweetened beverages to
  reduce consumption, improve nutrition and raise
  revenue for health programs is one strategy.

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Ask(s)

• Meeting with advocates to hear latest research
• Hold a hearing on soda tax bringing in another
  state to show how it has worked
• Op/ed by key Members/committees expressing
  support for soda tax

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Tactics (meetings, calls, letters, site visits)

• Identify champions
• Meetings to educate policy-makers about soda tax
  and specific impact in state
• Letters urging policy-makers to support soda tax
• Letters to the editor campaign
• Press conference unveiling polling/research
• Blog outreach
• Coalition Building
• Creating audience specific materials

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Tools (research, polling, policy analysis,
stories)

• Research regarding health and economic impacts of
  soda tax
• Stories of what affect has had in other states,
  comparison to tobacco
• Polling of public support
• Focus group testing of policy-makers

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Next Steps

• Prioritize Tactics
• Think about timing in terms of legislative
  process what makes sense to do first?