External collaboration and performance: North Carolina local public health departments, 1996 (original) (raw)
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Journal of Urban Health, 2008
Improving community health "from the ground up" entails a comprehensive ecological approach, deep involvement of community-based entities, and addressing social determinants of population health status. Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Office of the Surgeon General, and other authorities have called for public health to be an "inter-sector" enterprise, few models have surfaced that feature local health departments as a key part of the collaborative model for effecting community-level change. This paper presents evaluation findings and lessons learned from the Partnership for the Public's Health (PPH), a comprehensive community initiative that featured a central role for local health departments with their community partners. Funded by The California Endowment, PPH provided technical and financial resources to 39 community partnerships in 14 local health department jurisdictions in California to promote community and health department capacity building and community-level policy and systems change designed to produce long-term improvements in population health. The evaluation used multiple data sources to create progress ratings for each partnership in five goal areas related to capacity building, community health improvement programs, and policy and systems change. Overall results were generally positive; in particular, of the 37 partnerships funded continuously throughout the 5 years of the initiative, between 25% and 40% were able to make a high level of progress in each of the Initiative's five goal areas. Factors associated with partnership success were also identified by local evaluators. These results showed that health departments able to work effectively with community groups had strong, committed leaders who used creative financing mechanisms, inclusive planning processes, organizational changes, and open communication to promote collaboration with the communities they served. KEYWORDS Community health partnerships, Local public health departments, Communitybased health promotion, Resident involvement, Collaboration, Social determinants of health.
Local Health Department Collaborative Capacity to Improve Population Health
Frontiers in public health services & systems research, 2014
Local health departments (LHDs) can more effectively develop and strengthen community health partnerships when leaders focus on building partnership collaborative capacity (PCC), including a multisector infrastructure for population health improvement. Using the 2008 National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) Profile survey, we constructed an overall measure of LHD PCC comprised of the five dimensions: outcomes-based advocacy, vision-focus balance, systems orientation, infrastructure development, and community linkages. We conducted a series of regression analyses to examine the extent to which LHD characteristics and contextual factors were related to PCC. The most developed PCC dimension was vision-focus balance, while infrastructure development and community linkages were the least developed. In multivariate analyses, LHDs that were locally governed (rather than governed by the state), LHDs without local boards of health, and LHDs providing a wider range of...
Collaboration between local health and local government agencies for health improvement
The Cochrane …, 2011
Background In many countries, national, regional and local inter-and intra-agency collaborations have been introduced to improve health outcomes. Evidence is needed on the effectiveness of locally developed partnerships which target changes in health outcomes and behaviours. Objectives To evaluate the effects of interagency collaboration between local health and local government agencies on health outcomes in any population or age group.
Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 2012
Ramal Moonesinghe, PhD r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r T his study examines whether partnership-related measures in the second version of the National Public Health Performance Standards (NPHPS) are useful in evaluating level of activity as well as identifying latent constructs that exist among local public health systems (LPHSs). In a sample of 110 LPHSs, descriptive analysis was conducted to determine frequency and percentage of 18 partnership-related NPHPS measures. Principal components factor analysis was conducted to identify unobserved characteristics that promote effective partnerships among LPHSs. Results revealed that 13 of the 18 measures were most frequently reported at the minimal-moderate level (conducted 1%-49% of the time). Coordination of personal health and social services to optimize access (74.6%) was the most frequently reported measure at minimal-moderate levels. Optimal levels (conducted >75% of the time) were reported most frequently in 2 activities: participation in emergency preparedness coalitions and local health departments ensuring service provision by working with state health departments (67% and 61% of respondents, respectively) and the least optimally reported activity was review partnership effectiveness (4% of respondents). Factor analysis revealed categories of partnership-related measures in 4 domains: resources and activities contributing to relationship building, evaluating community leadership activities, research, and state and local linkages to support public health activities. System-oriented public health assessments may have questions that serve as proxy measures to examine levels of interorganizational partnerships. Several measures from the NPHPS were useful in establishing a national baseline of minimal and optimal activity levels as well as identifying factors to enhance the delivery of the 10 essential public health services among organizations and individuals in public health systems.
The Journal of Rural Health, 2010
With limited resources and increased public health challenges facing the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others have identified partnerships between local health departments (LHDs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as critical to the public health system. LHDs utilize financial, human, and informational resources and develop partnerships with local NGOs to provide public health services. Purpose: Our study had 2 primary goals: (1) compare resources and partnerships characterizing rural, suburban, and urban LHDs, and (2) determine whether partnerships play a mediating role between LHD resources and the services LHDs provide. Methods: We conducted secondary data analysis using the National Association of County and City Health Officials 2005 Profile Study. We used chisquared and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to examine differences between rural, suburban, and urban LHDs. We used regression-based mediation methods to test whether partnerships mediated the relationship between resources and service provision. Findings: We found significant differences between LHDs. Urban LHDs serve larger jurisdictions, have larger budgets and more staff, cultivate more partnerships with local NGOs, and provide more health services than suburban or rural LHDs. We found that partnerships were a partial mediator between resources and service provision. In playing a mediating role, partnerships reduce differences in service provision between rural, suburban, and urban LHDs. Conclusions: Partnerships mediate the relationship between resources and service provision in LHDs. LHDs could place more emphasis on cultivating relationships with local NGOs in order to increase service provision. This strategy may be especially useful for rural LHDs facing limited resources and numerous health disparities.
Cross-sector collaboration to improve community health: a view of the current landscape
Health affairs (Project Hope), 2014
Collaboration between the health and community development sectors has gained increased attention as a means of accelerating progress to improve community health. This article offers an empirical perspective on the general status of such collaboration based on results from a national survey of practitioners in the community development and health fields. Study results show that cross-sector efforts to improve health are widespread across the United States. Community development organizations, including community development financial institutions, support a wide spectrum of activities addressing both social determinants of health and the immediate needs of communities. However, the means of assessing the impacts of these joint community health improvement initiatives appear limited. We highlight opportunities for building on present momentum and for measuring results in a way that expands the evidence base on effective collaborative efforts between the two sectors.
Public/private partners: Key factors in creating a strategic alliance for community health
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 1999
Background: The rapidly evolving American health system creates economic and societal incentives for public and private health organizations to collaborate. Despite the apparent benefits of collaboration, there is a paucity of information available to help local agencies develop partnerships. This study, itself a collaboration between a school of public health (SPH) and a Georgia health district, was undertaken to identify critical factors necessary to successfully initiate and sustain a public/private community health collaboration.
The Milbank Quarterly, 1997
G r o w i n g r e s o u r c e c o n s t r a i n t s h a v e increased the need for, and willingness of, organizations to work together Kimberly, Leatt, and Shortell 1983;. Across the United States public-private partnerships are forming to develop the community infrastructure for assessment, planning, and evaluation of community health needs and to integrate health and human services into collaborative service networks. Existing research has explored two types of collaborative networks: (1) local coalitions of public and private stakeholders that focus on public health and community planning; and (2) service delivery networks that seek to coordinate and provide collaboratively a continuum of services. Our research focuses on public-private partnerships that join these two types of networks.
Cross Jurisdictional Boundaries to Build a Health Coalition: A Kentucky Case Study
Frontiers in public health, 2018
Cross-jurisdictional sharing is accomplished through collaboration across jurisdictional boundaries to deliver essential public health services and solve problems that cannot be easily addressed by single organizations or jurisdictions. Partners across 10 counties and three public health jurisdictions of the Barren River Area Development District (BRADD) convened as Barren River Initiative to Get Healthy Together (BRIGHT), a community health improvement coalition. Focus groups and interviews with BRIGHT members indicate that the use of effective strategies to focus collaborative health improvement efforts fosters a cohesive coalition even when the group is populated by individuals from across public health jurisdictional boundaries. Focusing strategies identified included: the importance of organizing workgroups so members can draw upon expertise, adoption of a community engagement model for health assessment and improvement; and use of a facilitator, who offers guidance and adminis...