Upshaw came to Carolina in 1996 with appointments in both the School of Government and the School of Public Health. Her career has been spent supporting leaders and decision-makers who work to improve quality of life in their communities. Dr. Upshaw was instrumental in the establishment of the National Association of Boards of Health.

Read the full link here.

Thank you to everyone who joined us and asked questions in yesterday’s webinar, “Communicating Through COVID-19 and Beyond” — and thank you again to our speakers for their thought-provoking insights, expertise, and actionable tips for communicators. You can watch the recording from the presentation here and learn more insights from our speakers in our newly released accompanying resource, Communicating Through COVID-19 and Beyond: Impact and Insights from the Field of Public Health. 

Download the resource

Access the webinar recording

Here are highlights from our speakers about this important and timely topic:

“In times where we can’t offer certainty, we can provide empathy and clear strategies for navigating uncertainty.”

— Dr. Ying-Ying Goh, Director of Public Health and Health Officer at Pasadena Public Health Department, CA

Goh underscored the vital role that communications plays in public health and responding to uncertainty with empathy. At the Pasadena Public Health Department, Goh and her team credit centering empathy and clear communications strategies in their long-standing relationships with education partners, families, and students to successfully advance public health messaging during the pandemic. 

“It’s not what’s convenient for us, it’s what’s convenient for our communities.”

— Julie Pryde, Public Health Administrator at Champaign-Urbana Public Health District, IL

Pryde emphasized how embracing an honest and open communications strategy helps maintain relationships with the community. In addition to a transparent approach to messaging, Pryde discussed how she opened new lines of communication and increased accessibility to information with her “Ask the Administrator” daily newspaper column launched in 2020. Through this column, Pryde answered submitted questions for over a year in the local paper to reach the senior community. 

“Leave perfectionism behind and focus on consistent messaging as a team."

— Frank Kruppa, Public Health Director and Mental Health Commissioner at Tompkins County Health Department, NY

When asked about one thing he would leave behind in his communications strategies, and one thing he would take forward, Kruppa said he would “leave perfectionism behind” and take forward the teamwork necessary to craft effective messaging. He noted that his team realized early on that communicating consistently and crafting messages as a team was the best way to earn trust. This approach is exemplified by the community ambassador program that Kruppa and his team successfully piloted in summer of 2021 to reach diverse communities in Tompkins County. 

Watch the recording here.

More Insights are in Our New Resource

We are excited to announce the release of our latest resource, Communicating Through COVID-19 and Beyond: Impact and Insights from the Field of Public Health. Crowdsourced from over 600 public health communicators across 51 states and territories, this resource highlights the immense impact of public health communicators in 2020 and offers a powerful wealth of insights for protecting public health through COVID-19 and beyond. In addition to learnings from Dr. Goh, Ms. Pryde, and Mr. Kruppa, the resource also features insights from health department leaders across the nation—from the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, to the Blue Ridge Mountains in rural Virginia. 

Download our New Resource.

As you read these timely insights from your colleagues, we hope you’ll share your reflections and learnings with us by tagging us on social media at @PH_Comms on Twitter or Public Health Communications Collaborative on LinkedIn. 

Aim: To support public health professionals and assist in addressing the ongoing violence, harassment, and threats.  The STOP! Partner group is developing, sharing, and disseminating information and resources to help further define and understand the nature and scope of the problem; advance efforts to deter and protect violence and threats; and support the public health workforce. 

Interested in joining the STOP! Partner group?  For more information, contact Dr. Beth Resnick, Assistant Dean for Public Health Practice, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health at bresnick@jhu.edu

Following a yearlong revision, the 2021 Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals (Core Competencies) are now available. Adopted by the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice (Council on Linkages), the newly revised Core Competencies describe crosscutting or foundational knowledge and skills for all public health professionals. Changes in the 2021 version reflect significant updates to the content, wording, and structure of the Core Competencies, with a focus on improving harmonization with other workforce development resources, adding and expanding concepts of increasing importance in today’s public health environment, and making the Core Competencies easier to use. Learn more and access the latest version of this key workforce development resource.

Interested in hearing more about the revised 2021 Core Competencies? Join the Public Health Foundation and Council on Linkages for a webinar introducing the new Core Competencies on December 7, 2021 from 1-2pm EST to discuss changes in the 2021 version and share your questions. Register today.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – AmeriCorps, the federal agency for volunteering and national service, has launched Public Health AmeriCorps, a new partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to support the recruitment, training, and development of a new generation of public health leaders who will be ready to respond to the nation’s public health needs.

The program, which is supported by a $400 million investment from the American Rescue Plan Act, is anticipated to fund up to 5,000 AmeriCorps positions over the next five years and comes as part of a larger $7 billion investment in the public health workforce announced by the Biden-Harris Administration.

Today, AmeriCorps released the notice of federal funding availability for Public Health AmeriCorps through AmeriCorps’ State and National program. The competition is open to nonprofit, faith-based and community-based organizations; higher-education institutions; state, local and territorial government entities, such as cities or counties; and Indian Tribes. New organizations are encouraged to apply for these grants. The window for funding availability will be open for 60 days from this announcement.

“In partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health AmeriCorps will help vulnerable communities recover from COVID-19 and address broader public health needs, especially those exacerbated by the pandemic,” said Mal Coles, acting CEO at AmeriCorps. “This is an exciting new partnership that builds upon the expertise, best practices, and lessons learned from both existing AmeriCorps and CDC programs to support communities and also provide much-needed surge capacity for state and local public health agencies who continue to bear the burden of caring for a nation in crisis.”

“The experience and networks AmeriCorps brings to this partnership provide a valuable opportunity to engage communities around the United States, including many people who may have never considered a deeply fulfilling career in public health,” said CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H.  “This program is a critical component of CDC’s effort to develop a strong, diverse workforce to face the public health challenges of the future.”

Potential applicant organizations are encouraged to fully review the information posted on americorps.gov funding opportunities webpage. The deadline for applications is Monday, Nov. 8, 2021.

AmeriCorps will host a variety of technical assistance calls, webinars and workshops to answer questions about this funding opportunity, including how to submit an application. Times and dates for these calls, along with additional technical assistance information, will be posted on its funding opportunity page. Questions from organizations about the grant competition can be directed to AmeriCorpsGrants@cns.gov.

AmeriCorps continues to invest in the nation’s COVID-19 recovery. With existing programs in more than 40,000 locations across the country, AmeriCorps is uniquely positioned to bolster community response efforts. For the past year and half, thousands of AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers across all 50 states and U.S. territories have continued their service, quickly adapting to meet the changing needs caused by the pandemic and have provided vital support, community response, and recovery efforts, providing support to more than 11.5 million Americans, including 2.5 million people at vaccination sites.

The recording and presentation slides are now available. Additionally, below are publications and resources that were either mentioned during the webinar or related to the panelist's research:

• Carl Letamendi publication: Building a Culture of Health at the Neighborhood Level Through Governance Councils
• Glen Mays publications:
  • Public Health Spending and Medicare Resource Use: A Longitudinal Analysis of U.S. Communities
  • Preventable Death Rates Fell Where Communities Expanded Population Health Activities Through Multisector Networks
  • Evidence links increases in public health spending to declines in preventable deaths
• Scott P. Hays publication: Public Health Governance and Population Health Outcomes
• Georgia Health Policy Center publication (referenced in the presentation):
  • A Theory of Change for Aligning Health Care, Public Health, and Social Services in the Time of COVID-19

Absent this type of self-assessment, public health measures will fall short and exclude the most vulnerable. A visible, recent example of this is the failure to track racial demographic data at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though not explicitly stated, the working theory underlying this massive misstep is that race is irrelevant, or at least of minimal relevance to quelling the pandemic. This is despite widespread evidence pre-COVID-19 that racial inequalities are intertwined with inequities in food, education, housing, work, mental health support, and numerous other examples. These same inequalities have been exacerbated during the pandemic with additional disparities in morbidity and mortality. Had government agencies questioned the assumption that mitigating the pandemic could be achieved without explicit attention to race, this misstep may have been avoided. This is just one example of how unacknowledged theories, in this case on the salience of race to the COVID-19 pandemic, nonetheless directed practice.

Even now, the assumed irrelevance of race continues to inform pandemic responses in ways that exacerbate existing inequities. For example, Ruqaiijah Yearby and Seema Mohapatra have illuminated how emergency response has been rooted in structural discrimination through upstream “unfair laws and policies” impacting workers in the home health care and meat-processing industries. Yearby and Mohapatra identify laws—designation of essential workers, limitations in CARES Act protections, invocation of the Defense Production Act—that have been enacted in ways that harm low-paid workers, especially women of color and immigrants, in the absence of other efforts (e.g., paid sick leave, childcare for essential workers) to address racial and other inequities impacting these workers.

These examples illustrate that our search for practical law and policy solutions must start with critical and open curiosity about the theories we consciously (and unconsciously) adopt. Only then is there a strong basis to implement reforms based on well-reasoned and empirically grounded criteria that will not simply reproduce a social system that makes minor improvements at the margins but maintains a deeply racialized structure. It is in this light that I propose two theoretical starting points that can inform good practice.

The first starting point is to recognize that race is a social institution not a “natural” category. That is, racial categories do not delineate objective, inevitable, or essential distinctions between human beings. It might seem odd to label this as “theory” because it is a position that is now so widely accepted. But identifying it as a theoretical starting point forces us to begin with a fundamental question: as a social institution, what is the work that race is doing?

A recent New York study, for instance, concluded Black people were not “inherently more susceptible to having poor COVID-19 outcomes” and even had lower mortality rates than white people “if Black patients make it to the hospital.” The authors “inferred that the higher mortality noted in Black populations could largely be attributed to higher out-of-hospital deaths” which in turn “could certainly be explained by the lower neighborhood SES [socioeconomic status] noted in Black communities.” This study indicates that the work that race is doing within communities is to function as a “plus” or “minus” factor for who will ultimately get through the hospital door and even live. It would be a mistake to conclude that race is reducible to SES. At minimum because SES in our society is color-coded and racial disparities do not simply disappear up the SES ladder. Instead, treating race as its own impactful social institution will cause us to start asking the right questions. That is, it will immediately raise questions about race’s relationship with other social and political institutions—even when those other institutions seem race neutral on the surface.

Second, intersectionality theory generally calls attention to the fact that individuals often experience multiple forms of oppression that are not reducible to just one aspect of one’s identity (e.g., race or gender). Kimberly Crenshaw provides an analogy to

traffic in an intersection, coming and going in all four directions. Discrimination, like traffic through an intersection, may flow in one direction, and it may flow in another. If an accident happens in an intersection, it can be caused by cars traveling from any number of directions and, sometimes, from all of them.

Crenshaw later explained that intersectionality theory captures how one’s location at an intersection: uniquely shapes individuals’ experiences, has been marginalized by an inability of others to identify and articulate these experiences, and has been obscured by our cultural construction of these individuals. Importantly, intersectionality theory points not just to individuals’ personal definitions of their identity, but to how that identity is socially construed and, in turn, interacts with other institutions.

Intersectionality theory reminds us not to approach public health solutions with overly simplistic categories that reduce inequities to race or gender or class or rurality or LGBTQ status or veteran status. Such models fail to recognize how these factors interact to create unique obstacles that hinder the ability of individuals and communities to truly be healthy.

Tying theory back to practice, here are examples of where intersectional work is being pursued:

• An examination of the traumatic experiences of GBQ boys and young men of color advocating that we “no longer view the racial, gender and sexual identities of these young men as separate and unrelated aspects of their existence;”
• An assessment of how an intersectional framework can address mental health disparities in Latino/a groups;
• The creation of breastfeeding campaigns that account for historically rooted stereotypes of Black women as bad mothers and their continued impacts;
• A call to tackle the link between climate change and gender-based violence, including intersections with rurality, forced migration, and discrimination against indigenous communities;
• A state-formulated equity framework addressing COVID-19 response and recovery stating that an intersectional perspective must center equity in planning and response efforts; and
• A Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM) that provides tools and trainings on “Social Justice Informed Mental Health Literacy,” which recognizes the relevance of factors like “HIV/AIDS, transphobia, homophobia, racism, misogynoir” and ableism.

In conclusion, I have used the term “theory” to refer to the norms, assumptions, and values that are built into practice, which can be overt and consciously thought out, or, covert and invisible even to those who advocate for their implementation. In the quest to develop practical strategies to address systemic racism, it is of critical importance that we recognize that: (1) our practices are always informed by theory (whether good or bad); (2) if we are not self-conscious about the theories we have internalized, we will unquestionably exacerbate inequalities or at minimum ensure their continued existence; and (3) self-reflective theory is the necessary starting point of good practice.

I have highlighted two theoretical grounds that will help inform good practice: viewing race as a social (not natural) institution and using an intersectional lens. Both raise important questions for public health interventions, including: What is the work that is race doing? What communities are being targeted for assistance? What active efforts are being made to uncover intra-group differences?  How are the experiences of marginalized community members being incorporated? How is that knowledge treated? Asking these types of questions is how theory drives change in the right direction.

This post written by April Shaw, Staff Attorney, Network for Public Health Law – Northern Region Office. The Network for Public Health Law provides information and technical assistance on issues related to public health.

The legal information and assistance provided in this document do not constitute legal advice or legal representation. For legal advice, readers should consult a lawyer in their state. Support for the Network is provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The views expressed in this post do not represent the views of (and should not be attributed to) RWJF. 

Working with partners and their communities, public health departments provide expertise, data and population health services as they serve as key leaders in improving the health and well-being of communities. To demonstrate accountability and adopt cultures that promote continuous performance improvement, many health departments strive to achieve national accreditation. Today, the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) is pleased to announce the names of four public health departments that have achieved accreditation or reaccreditation status, after completion of a systematic review process against national standards. These health departments have successfully demonstrated a commitment to a focus on accountability, equity and performance as they work to improve the health of their communities.

PHAB, the nongovernmental, nonprofit organization that administers the national accrediting program, works to improve and protect the health of the public by advancing and transforming the quality and performance of governmental public health departments in the United States and abroad.

“PHAB is incredibly proud of the four health departments awarded accreditation and reaccreditation this November,” said Paul Kuehnert, President and CEO of PHAB. “It is important to shine a light on this important work, especially during such challenging times, as we recognize their achievement in advancing public health practice through continuous quality improvement and using accreditation to transform their communities.”

“We have reached an important milestone for Ross County in our achievement of PHAB accreditation. This achievement moves us closer to our vision of strong partnerships, healthy communities and healthy people,” said Garrett Guillozet, Health Commissioner for the Ross County Health Department in Chillicothe, Ohio. “As we reflect on the hard work it took to get here, we are grateful to our partners and community for their continued commitment to public health and invite them to join us in celebrating this bright spot during a particularly challenging time for all.”

“The Central Michigan District Health Department could not be more proud of being recognized for reaccreditation this week. As one of the early adopters in the country to be nationally accredited, we continue on our performance improvement journey, the importance of which has been highlighted during the pandemic,” said Steve Hall, Health Officer. “I applaud our entire team, our partners and our community for their commitment to safeguarding public health and the environment.”

PHAB, the nonprofit organization that administers the national public health accreditation program, aims to advance and transform public health practice by championing performance improvement, strong infrastructure, and innovation. Launched in 2011 with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, PHAB's accreditation program has become the national standard for public health in the United States.

National reaccreditation was awarded November 13, 2020 to:

• Central Michigan District Health Department, Mount Pleasant, MI
• El Paso County Public Health, Colorado Springs, CO

National initial accreditation was awarded November 13, 2020 to

• Ross County Health District, Chillicothe, OH
• Unified Government Public Health Department, Kansas City, KS

For more information, contact Jessica Solomon Fisher at jfisher@phaboard.org. Learn more about PHAB and accreditation at http://www.phaboard.org. Be in the know: subscribe to PHAB's e-newsletter.

About the Public Health Accreditation Board
The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) was created to serve as the national public health accrediting body and is funded in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The development of national public health accreditation has involved, and is supported by, public health leaders and practitioners from the national, state, local, Tribal, and territorial levels.

The COVID-19 Pandemic Shows Why We Must—And How We Can—End Racial Injustice in Health

Overview

Click here to register! Strong public health departments engaged in effective community partnerships make all communities healthier places to live, work, learn, and play. On this webinar, leaders from PHAB and the National Association of Counties (NACo) will join in a discussion of the numerous benefits accreditation brings to counties across the nation, and county leaders will share insights into their own counties’ journeys toward achieving accreditation. Presenters include Paul Kuehnert, President & CEO, PHAB; Jessica Kronstadt, Director of Research and Evaluation, PHAB; Mary Jo McGuire, Commissioner, Ramsey County, Minn.; and Carol Moehrle, District Director, Idaho North Central Public Health District.   

PHNCI and the de Beaumont Foundation recognize the importance of working with the field on this initiative, and through the Futures Initiative, will engage with you through a variety of opportunities. Among them will be:

Live crowdsourcing events:

• Virtual and in-person townhalls:
• October 28: 3 to 4 pm  ET – REGISTER +
• November 13: 2:30-3:30 pm ET – REGISTER +
• Think tank discussions,
• Engagement with national partners and constituent organizations, and
• An online questionnaire.

Now is your chance to inform the field, and practice, of public health for years to come. Please take the time to share your thoughts by participating.  A finalized framework is expected to be launched during the Public Health Innovation Summit & Showcase in June 2020.    

This week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have awarded more than $1.8 billion in funding to states, territories, and 16 local jurisdictions to combat opioid misuse. The federal grants are to expand prevention and response efforts and support access to near real-time data on the drug overdose crisis.  

Education has emerged as a social determinant of health in its own right. More highly educated individuals are healthier and tend to live longer; they also are at less risk of smoking, drug abuse, accidents and chronic diseases. Despite federal laws that guarantee all children a free appropriate public education, major inequities exist. Join us for a discussion of critical issues in public education affecting child and adolescent health, including access to school nursing services; restorative justice and school discipline reform; and laws that ensure that children don’t go hungry at school.

Register here.

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published the final rule to the Federal Register on Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds (CIS No. 2637-19; DHS Docket No. USCIS-2010-0012). NALBOH has been discussing this proposed rule to determine what we as board of health members can do to lower the impact of public health concerns.

The final rule amends current DHS regulations on how DHS will determine if an alien who is applying for adjustment of status or admission to the United States is admissible or not under section 212(a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, because he or she is likely at any time to become a public charge. An official summary and factsheet of the rule can be found here.

ASTHO’s high level summary of key provisions can be found here.

Impact

Many organizations that provided comments on the proposed rule expressed concern regarding a potential “chilling effect,” or when some individuals may disenroll or forego enrollment in public benefits programs. DHS states that “it is unclear how many individuals would actually disenroll from or forego enrollment in public benefits programs due to the final rule” due to difficulties in prospectively estimating disenrollment but estimates that 241,089 members of households that include foreign-born non-citizens expected to disenroll or forego enrollment across each of the public benefits programs in order to preserve their chances of adjusting status.

The detailed DHS economic analysis estimates potential impact of this rule. DHS includes in its own economic analysis of the final rule a list of consequences “that could occur because of follow-on effects of the reduction in transfer payments due to disenrollment or forgone enrollment in public benefits programs as identified in the final rule.” A list of “non-monetized potential consequences of the final rule caused by disenrollment or foregoing enrollment in public benefits program by aliens who are otherwise eligible could lead to the following:

1. Worse health outcomes, including increased prevalence of obesity and malnutrition, especially for pregnant or breastfeeding women, infants, or children, and reduced prescription adherence.
2. Increased use of emergency rooms and emergent care as a method of primary healthcare due to delayed treatment.
3. Increased prevalence of communicable diseases, including among members of the U.S. citizen population who are not vaccinated.
4. Increases in uncompensated care in which a treatment or service is not paid for by an insurer or patient.
5. Increased rates of poverty and housing instability.
6. Reduced productivity and educational attainment.

Included in comments on the proposed rule submitted on Nov. 30, 2018, ASTHO expressed grave concern about these six areas, given their responsibility to protect and promote the health of their jurisdictions and prevent diseases statewide. Since the public health risks and health impacts are known and articulated, this final rule could potentially affect all Americans regardless of their immigration status. 

Click here to learn more and register.

The high cost of health care and the increasing decline in health insurance coverage are a concern for all people living in America. But for immigrants, who have extremely low rates of insurance coverage compared to citizens, the situation is even more precarious. This webinar examines a few of the laws that may interfere with immigrants’ access to care.

Click here for more information and to register. 

Quick Announcement:

 Have you noticed our new logo? The Michigan Public Health Training Center is now the Region V Public Health Training Center! With that you will notice our name change and updated logo to represent the new designation. Look for an updated website, coming soon! You can still access our Training Gateway for all of our online training offerings