About the Activity

Public Health Over Time Activity is an exercise that connects public health's past, present, and future in a useful way for board of health members. In the activity, participants are asked to create a timeline of local and state public health milestones, to compare them to national political and social events, and to discuss the patterns or influences of such events on local, state and national public health.

Purpose

The purpose of this program is to:

• introduce board members to the importance of public health in their community
• show board members how public health activity have been influenced by community needs
• provide varying perspectives (e.g. newspaper, press releases, radio announcements, personal memories) of local public health events and to align these recollections with state and national events
• create a timeline that my be used to show how the board of health and the local public health agency (LPHA) have responded to public health threats and concerns. The timeline may be a record of local events, unavailable from state or national sources, that could be used in a variety of ways, such as: for a "This Month in Public Health" column in the LPHA newsletter or on the LPHA's web site; in annual reports or on press releases; and as a tool to raise the profile of public health (and the LPHA and board of health) in the community.

Goals

The goals of the timeline activity are to:

• establish an historical understanding of public health in the US, and at the state and local levels
• gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of public health and how it has changed over time
• evaluate the influences of external and internal events on public health in communities

Activity Overview

This activity takes place with the guidance of an activity leader and generally involves the following components provided by NALBOH:

A. Introduction
Activity leader and participants are introduced and activity leader briefly reviews goals and objectives of the exercise

B. A Brief History of Public Health/Discussion of Public Health Achievements
Activity leader describes public health achievements at the national, state, and local levels since the turn of the 20th century as a way to "warm-up" group. The leader continues with discussion of public health over time, its importance and how it touches people's lives

C. Activity: Public Health Over Time
Participants engage in creating a timeline of public health events at the national, state and local levels

D. Review and Conclusions
Activity leader and participants discuss patterns and trends in public health events, making note of "trigger" events, e.g. those events that lead to changes in delivery of services, funding, productivity, etc., and highlighting patterns discerned from examining the past, present and future of public health

To Order or Download

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