Activities
To organize a comprehensive and coordinated local response to promote health improvement, the public health partnerships must:
- Assess local public health capacity: The first step in establishing improved local public health capacity is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the local public health system including conducting an inventory of local public health assets. To that end, all network sites are being assisted to apply the National Public Health Performance Standards Local Public Health Systems Instrument.
- Monitor the health status of the community: Focusing on a broad definition of health that goes beyond the absence of disease to address the underlying factors that create a high quality of life for everyone in the community, public health partnerships must conduct a comprehensive community health assessment to quantify and document trends in health status. The health assessment must incorporate an assessment of morbidity and mortality data for the community as well as input from community residents about attitudes, awareness and behaviors which impact health status. In many cases, communities have found it beneficial to collaborate on this needs assessment process with organizations required by law to complete a community benefits plan. Coordination of community assessment activities has helped to ensure a more comprehensive assessment process, to minimize duplication of effort, and as importantly, to help build important regional relationships.
- Identify priority health problems in a community: Public health partnerships must engage the broad public health interests in the community to review and prioritize health problems and set priorities for community-wide response. By engaging all public health interests in setting priorities for action, all community assets are focused on addressing high priority health issues assuring available resources are coordinated and maximized.
- Develop strategies for addressing local health concerns: Public health partnerships are well positioned to facilitate a community-wide effort to identify strategies for addressing local health concerns. Coalitions can identify best practices, mobilize community partners to take action, and obtain supporting resources and funds.
- Coordinate community assets to address local needs: The public health partnerships increasingly play a key role in coordinating local public health assets to facilitate an effective response. It is understood that not all agencies are positioned to address all issues, but available community assets can contribute in different ways to address priority public health concerns. By working collaboratively with public health assets in the community to develop strategies for addressing local health concerns, the expertise and experience of community assets can be targeted where they will have the most beneficial impact.
- Assess the impact of a local response and make continuous improvement: Public health partnerships have an ongoing responsibility to evaluate the impact of community efforts to promote health improvement. Through continuous monitoring of the health status of the community, the coalition can identify strategies that work and strategies that are not producing the desire improvement. The coalition then facilitates corrective action by engaging community partners in modifying strategies to achieve the desired objectives.
- Serve as liaison with state health agencies: Public health partnerships work closely with state agencies to assure the health and safety of the public. State-level public health agencies retain a substantial role in the delivery of selected essential services that are not cost-effectively replicated at the local level. The public health partnership coordinates with state-level agencies to communicate with the public and provide outreach, as needed. This is particularly the case in event of an emergency or public health alert where local coalitions play a critical role in mobilizing a local response with the support of State and Federal agencies.