PACE EH Redefining Local Environmental Health PACE EH National Summit Louisville, Kentucky March 28-29, 2006 The PACE EH Methodology

Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental Health A tool offering local health officials guidance in conducting a community-based environmental health assessment and creating an accurate profile of a communitys environmental health status

PACE EH was produced by: The Community Environmental Health Assessment Program at NACCHO Funded through a cooperative agreement between NACCHO and the National Center for Environmental Health, CDC

Question: What is the cornerstone of good science?

Key Objectives of PACE EH Evaluate Environmental Health Conditions Target Populations at Risk Set Priorities Support Health Equity and Social Justice

What Are Not the Key Objectives of PACE EH Does not define the parameters of Environmental Health Does not provide a menu of issues or indicators Does not provide pre-designed action plans Does not require a health equity focus

Benefits Across PACE EH Sites Fosters confidence Clients to Partners Database development Community ownership of EH Improved EH Leadership role Bridge-building New work skills New professional partnerships

The Thirteen Tasks of PACE EH Task 1: Determine Community Capacity Task 2: Define/Characterize the Community Task 3: Assemble a CEHA Team Task 4: Define the Goals, Objectives and Scope Task 5: Generate List of EH Issues Task 6: Analyze Issues w/ Systems Framework Task 7: Develop Indicators Task 8: Select Standards Task 9: Create Issue Profiles Task 10: Rank Issues Task 11: Set Priorities for Action Task 12: Develop Action Plan(s) Task 13: Evaluate Progress and Plan for the Future

Tasks 1- 3 Prepare for the Process 1.) Facilitators examine potential for a CEHA 2.) Facilitators map the target community 3.) Invite key community/staff members

Tasks Locate the Issues 4.)Define Goals & Scope of Assessment 5.)Generate List of Local EH Issues 6.)Describe the Context of the Issues

Tasks Quantify and Qualify the Issues 7.)Develop Local Indicators 8.)Select Relevant Standards 9.)Create Issue Profiles

Tasks Set the Stage for Action 10.)Rank the Issues 11.)Set Priorities for Action 12.)Develop Action Plans 13.)Evaluate Progress

PACE EH – The Five Primary Challenges Data limitations Lack of consensus Scientific view v. public perception Authority Indicators

Obstacles to meeting the challenges of PACE EH Extensive community outreach Translating between perception and science Rearranging work methods and priorities Promotion of CEHA efforts

Environmental Health at Schools of Public Health Graduate Schools of Public Health 11 offer advanced degrees in EH –85-90% of all core classes are hard science and issue specific –Little to no Social Sciences –No community outreach, no media strategies Approximately 75% of PH graduate students do NOT become employees of local public health agencies

The Public Health Workforce About 500,000 public health workers Of those, only 44% have formal, academic training in public health; most do not have a public health credential (e.g., an MPH). Median local public health agency staff size is 13 FTEs Local public health agencies struggle to fill workforce with technically proficient staff, other proficiencies deemed secondary

Environmental Health Workforce Development Current Status: Less than 50% coming out of schools of public health Those that do, not prepared for community collaboration Too few employees, and too many specific funding streams, in most local public health agencies to support discrete skill specialization Maryland health directors claim it takes approximately five years to fully train a new employee

What can PACE EH do? Undertaking the PACE EH methodology builds competency: Extensive community outreach Translating between perception and science Rearranging work methods and priorities Promotion of agency efforts