Public Health Ready: An Overview

1. Public Health Ready:An Overview

2. NACCHO • Membership organization • Strategic focus • Program work supported via membership dues, grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements.

3. NACCHO • LPHAs are diverse • Current challenges require “dual-use” solutions • Current challenges require a collaborative or systems approach

4. Public Health Ready • Collaborative activity • Broad vision focused on developing individual competency and LPHA capacity • Mission:To prepare staff of local governmental public health agencies to respond and protect the public's health through a competency-based training and certification program.

5. Project Values • Public Health Ready will complement, not duplicate, existing programs for professional development. • Work collaboratively keeping needs of LPHAs foremost in mind. • Certification process will be readily accessible and affordable to LPHA workforce. • Certification shall add value to the day to day practice of LPHAs. • Competencies shall reflect knowledge, skills, and abilities that are useful in “real-world” public health practice.

6. Project Values • An advisory committee of leaders and practitioners from local governmental public health will direct the certification process. • The certification process will be regularly evaluated to assure benefits and avoid negative consequences. • Public Health Ready shall be sought after by LPHAs as evidenced by its success in the marketplace (the demand for its programs by the workforce) • Training and certification will be implemented over time to allow for continuous quality improvement

7. Competency Based Training Preparedness & Response Planning Demonstration/ Scenarios LPHA Certification “Public Health Ready”

8. Training • Competency-based • Developing training program with partners • First steps • Web-based awareness course • In-person ICS course

9. Preparedness Planning • Project requires LPHA to have a plan • Train to functional roles in LPHA plan • First steps • Define functional roles in LPHA plan • NACCHO developing template plan for LPHAs

10. Demonstration/Scenarios • Demonstration of competency through scenario/exercise • Merges competencies with LPHA plan • First steps • Designing scenario evaluation protocol

11. Certification • LPHA reported need to show progress; certification is one way to do this • Certification adds value to activities that may be undertaken anyway • Agency can demonstrate national level acknowledgement/attainment of a standard

12. Pilot Process • Select ten LPHA pilots by Nov. 1, 2002 • “Representative” group of LPHAs (population size, region, state system) • Implement trainings and planning process, provide feedback

13. Issues • Taking competencies and developing trainings nationwide is a large undertaking • Many training programs out there, lots of workforce activity (local planning, state programs, national programs, academic centers) • Certification process is simultaneously breaking new ground and raising old issues • Work is progressing, but the program is still a “work in progress”

14. Additional Information www.naccho.org/project83.cfm www.nursing.hs.columbia.edu/institute-centers/chphsr/phready.html www.phppo.cdc.gov/owpp