Category: Policy Engagement

Strategic Skill Area

Problem Identification in the Policy Process and How Systems Thinking Fits In

Course Objective

Explain Stage One of the policy making process i.e. Problem Identification
Describe how Systems Thinking tools and approaches can help visualize a problem
Describe how Systems Thinking tools and approaches can help define the boundaries of a problem

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Launch Date: June 30th, 2020

Subject Matter Expert:
Helen de Pinho, MBBCh, FCCH (Public Health), MBA
Assistant Professor at Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health,
Associate Director of the Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program (AMDD) at Columbia University

This training describes how to implement the first stage of the CDC policy process – Problem Identification. Using a scenario focused on the opioid problem in fictitious Tycho County, the course discusses the practical steps that a health department, working in collaboration with key stakeholders, can take to describe and understand this complex problem. The course also explores how the application of systems thinking tools and approaches to make boundary decisions and visualize the problem using behavior over time graphs and rich pictures, can strengthen this stage of the policy making process.

Participants will learn about the following:

Explain Stage One of the policy making process i.e. Problem Identification
Describe how Systems Thinking tools and approaches can help visualize a problem
Describe how Systems Thinking tools and approaches can help define the boundaries of a problem

Policy Engagement: An Essential Role for Public Health Agencies in Public Health 3.0

Course Objective

Describe the policy engagement process in public health
Identify approaches that public health agencies can use to inform policy development
Describe how the elements of the community health improvement process can be used to support effective policy engagement to achieve public health goals

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Date: August 6, 2019

Presenter:
Sylvia Pirani, MPH, MS
Public Health Practice Consultant

In this Month’s Log-in2Learn webinar, participants learn about various policy-focused approaches that public health agencies can utilize from Sylvia Pirani, MPH, MS. The lecture takes a systems thinking approach and acknowledges that policy making is a rarely linear process with stages occurring simultaneously. From policy around motor vehicle related incident and fluoridation of drinking water through the transition to Public Health surveillance, this webinar walks participants through the evolution of policy engagement up to Public Health 3.0 and the role of the Chief Health Strategist. Focusing on partnerships and cross-cutting activities such as stakeholder engagement, collaboration and communication Slvia Pirani provides an overview of the policy engagement process.

Participants will learn how to:

Describe the policy engagement process in public health
Identify approaches that public health agencies can use to inform policy development
Describe how the elements of the community health improvement process can be used to support effective policy engagement to achieve public health goals

Activism and Health Promotion: A Primer

Course Objective

Describe influential frameworks for understanding activist successes and failures
Discuss contemporary social movements and their relevance to health promotion and public health
Describe common strategic challenges that face health activists

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Date: October 2, 2018

Presenter:
Merlin Chowkwanyun, PhD, MPH
Donald Gemson Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

In October 2018’s Log-in2Learn webinar, participants learn from Dr. Merlin Chowkwanyun about the history and role of social movements in driving public health and health promotion efforts in the United States. The lecture addresses the considerations made by activists in health advocacy work, such as: opportunities for conciliation, confrontation, or compromise; rhetoric and framing of messages; audience sensitivity in social movements; positionality of activist groups; and the use of coalitions. Dr. Chowkwanyun applies these frameworks to describe and evaluate the strategies of past health topics associated with activist efforts, including: healthcare access, mass incarceration, HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, environmental justice, and vaccination. At the end of the lecture, Dr. Chowkwanyun describes three recent movements – Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and Me Too – and forecasts their role in health policy development.

Health Policy Agenda Beyond the ACA

Course Objective

Explain the importance of considering social determinants of health when creating health-related messages
List techniques for developing targeted messages that increase awareness and promote action to address the social determinants of health
Describe research findings that demonstrate how personal ideology impacts how individuals receive, process, and interpret messages
Identify barriers to creating effective messages and media campaigns

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Date: October 27, 2016

Presenter:
Dr. Drew Altman
CEO and President
Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

Many Americans feel that commercial, political and ideological interests control the information that they consume. The Kaiser Family Foundation serves as an independent and non-partisan source of research, analysis and journalism for policymakers, the media and the general public. Kaiser aims to provide the highest quality coverage of health policy issues and developments at the federal and state levels and in the marketplace.

Dr. Drew Altman, CEO and President of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, is an innovator in the world of foundations and a leading expert on national health policy who publishes and speaks widely on health issues. Join him to discuss the future of health policy in the US.

Access to Care for Undocumented Patients

Course Objective

Describe the extent to which undocumented immigrants are eligible for publicly funded health care programs
Assess the health consequences of existing health policy for undocumented immigrants
Evaluate state and local efforts to expand access for undocumented immigrants

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Date: October 18, 2016

Presenter:
Michael K. Guzmano
Associate Professor
Rutgers University, School of Public Health Department of Health Systems and Policy

This presentation will review how federal, state and local policies influence access to health care for undocumented patients. The presenter will review the exclusion of these patients from major public health programs, analyze the consequences of these exclusions, and describe recent efforts by state and local governments to improve access for this population.

Social Movements in Public Health

Course Objective

Describe the interrelationship between social movements and public health.
Compare past and present social movements that have/ have had public health implications.
Identify how public health practice can partner with social movement actors to promote health.

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Date: August 25, 2016

Presenter:
James Colgrove PhD, MPH
Professor of Sociomedical Sciences
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Merlin Chowkwunyun PhD
Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Peggy Shepard
Executive Director
WE ACT For Environmental Justice

Social movements throughout US history have brought about positive changes in economic conditions, environmental protections, and human rights that have directly or indirectly affected population health. It is important for public health professionals to understand the relationship between social movements and public health and how that relationship can be harnessed to improve health outcomes. This training provides examples of the wide range of social movement strategies and approaches that have been used in US history and discuss the challenges that these movements have faced. Last, this training details how WE ACT For Environmental Justice of West Harlem has successfully approached deteriorating environmental conditions and health inequalities.

Strategies to Advance Health Equity: Understanding and Influencing Corporate Practices of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Food and Beverage Industries to Promote Health

Course Objective

Explain the rationale for expanding public health practice to promote health and equity by changing corporate practices;
Describe at least four ways that practices of the food, alcohol and tobacco industries contribute to prevalence and inequitable distribution of chronic diseases in the US and globally;
Identify some of the conceptual and organizational obstacles that state and local health departments face in taking on food, alcohol and tobacco industry’s influence on health;
Explain how to apply “upstream” strategies to define and achieve feasible goals in their own practice.

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Date: August 12, 2016

Reviewed June 30, 2020

Presenter:
Nicholas Freudenberg
Distinguished Professor of Public Health
City University of New York School of Public Health

Emily Franzosa
Senior Researcher
City University of New York School of Public Health

Tobacco and alcohol use and the consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages are all major causes of preventable deaths and disease in the United States and around the world. While individuals are responsible for the use and consumption of these substances, this webinar emphasizes how public health can take a new approach to this issue: by changing the ways that the tobacco, alcohol, and food industries currently promote their products and make a profit at the expense of community health. This webinar details tobacco, alcohol, and food corporate strategies that can have harmful affects on population health. This webinar also provides examples of health departments that have used research, advocacy, and education to tackle these industry tactics and advance a public health agenda.