Association Of State And Territorial Health Officials

Programs: Community health and disease prevention - see schedule ocommunity health and disease prevention:astho's prevention program supports state and territorial public health agencies to build their capacity to address america's major health problems and the leading causes of death and disability. The five primary sections are family and child health, maternal and infant health improvement, chronic disease prevention, health improvement, and social and behavoral health. Highlights of this year's work included the expansion of increasing access to contraception learning community to include 27 states and territory as well as the nine focus areas identified to implement and evaluate state efforts via the constructs of implementation science; astho also supported states in their efforts to improve health outcomes and prevent opioid misuse, abuse and diversion via the implementation of activities that promote coordination and integration across multiple agencies and service systems; enhanced the capacity of state health agency tobacco prevention programs to improve tobacco-related policies and practice, foster environmental, cultural and systems change, and serve as a resource to state health agencies on tobacco-related initiatives; supported public health agencies in preventing heart attacks and strokes through the identification of best and promising public health interventions for prevention and early identification of heart disease and linking with critical care. Astho has also been providing capacity building technical assistance with state public heatlh responses to opioid overdoses and deaths due to overdose. Behavioral health is an integral drive of health outcomes and as a result our social and behavioral health team works to identify the interconnections between social and behavioral health.

health security - see schedule ohealth security:the health security team focuses on health emergencies such as natural disasters, pandemics, deliberate attacks, environmental catastrophes, and other health threats and is comprised of three separate but integrated teams: preparedness, infectious diseases and immunizaton services, and environmental health. Major activities and accomplishments in 2017 included mobilizing to assist those states and territories severely impacted by the effects of hurricanes harvey, irma, and maria; continued support of the nation's preparedness and response efforts to zika virus disease and other vector borne threats; enhancing state and territorial public health and healthcare preparedness and response capacity and capabilities through the provision of all-hazards technical assistance; serving as secretariat to the national alliance for radiation readiness; maintaining strong and effective relationships with key federal agencies such as the cdc, t he hhs assistant secretary for preparedness and response, and the department of homeland security and practice partners such as the national emergency management association and national governors' association's homeland security advisors; developing and providing useful resources on drinkin water safety and per-and polyfluoroakkyl substances (pfas) contamination, extreme weather and climate readiness and wildfire smoke; built and sustained partnerships and produced planning and educational resources on mitigating the impact of seasonal and pandemic influenza, especially on vulnerable populations; and provided a portfolio of services targeted and healthcare associated infections and antimicrobial resistance including prevention strategies and communications toolkits and co-administering the council for outbreak response: healthcare associated infections and antimicrobial resistant pathogens (corha).

health systems transformation (the center for population health strategies) - see schedule ohealth systems transformation:the center for population health strategies program area provides leadership support and capacity building to position state and territorial health officials as chief health strategists in their jurisdictions. The center proposes that optimal population health is assured through the 3 pillars of the center: 1) building clinical to community connections, including financing population health interventions in medicaid and other payer programs; 2) addressing health equity and the social determinants of health through effective national and state partnerships; and 3) capitalizing on health data analytics and public health informatics by developing state health policy and program strategies for advanced and integrated technology. Highlights of this year's work includes building state capacity to promote innovation in health systems through community health worker policy development, use of telehealth to advance health care practice and public health policy standards, and advancing state integrated data technology standards through bidirectional electronic case reporting data exchange between state public health and electronic health records. The center also provided leadership on building state capacity to address health equity through developing standardized language for states to create tools and resources that include health quity language in proposals and contracts.

cross-cutting programs - see schedule ocross cutting programs: this work will address the highest priorities of the selected target population state health officials (shos) and other state health agency (sha) leaders, with a particular emphasis on senior deputies and state legislative liaisons. Through proposed work with the astho affiliate council, cba - particularly in workforce development, health equity, and integrating public health and clinical medicinewill benefit public health nurses, epidemiologists, laboratorians, public information officers, social workers, health educators, health facility surveyors, and directors of maternal and child health, chronic disease, injury prevention, minority health, vital statistics, hiv/aids, std, dental, nutrition, vector control, and emergency medical services programs. In the us territories and freely associated states, numerous challenges exist in healthcare services delivery. Health agency staff are few in number, and current staff are often under-trained in the areas ofprogram administration, financial management, and systems-thinking. Unlocking the potential of public health prevention, control and program management through planning and capacity-building assistance has a strong likelihood of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of health agencies, resulting in improved health status for the populations that those health agencies serve. This project will build state, territorial, and local public health agency capacity to communicate public health aspects of emergencies and disasters to the public and across the public health enterprise. This project would lay the groundwork to ensure cdc's national communication work and platforms are linked to state, local and territorial communication work and platforms. The effort would allow cdc to cross-promote state and territorial work alongside cdc's work with the goal of raising the profile of and the understanding of the importance of emergency preparedness and response work across the nation.