Monthly Archives: August 2021

Resisting the Allure of Moral Grandstanding

The Healthiest Goldfish with Sandro Galea

On choosing between virtue and the mere appearance of it. This post originally appeared on The Healthiest Goldfish with Sandro Galea and is republished here with permission from the author. Learn more at SandroGalea.org. We are living in an age of the visible moral gesture. It seems that all events of some note in our cultural or political life are accompanied by statements of

Read more

Avoiding Unintended Consequences in Public Health: Ensuring that PHAB Accreditation Reduces Health Disparities Between Public Health Jurisdictions

It is vital to ensure that PHAB accreditation is accomplished in a way that maximizes its impact on health equity and does not systematically leave out jurisdictions. In our article titled, “An Analysis of How Characteristics of Local Health Department Jurisdictions Influence Involvement in PHAB Accreditation: Implications for Health Equity,” my colleague, Ashlyn Lipnicky and I set out to explore

Read more

Here’s How Accreditation Has Influenced Health Department Financial Status, and Why It Matters

These findings provide insight into the specific capabilities and capacities strengthened through accreditation that may, in turn, influence financial outcomes. In the United States, the public health system includes a diverse and complex constellation of organizations and individuals. The backbone of this system is governmental public health, including state, tribal, local, and territorial public health departments. Health departments do critical

Read more

The Ineluctable Role of the Faceless Bureaucrat

The Healthiest Goldfish with Sandro Galea

During Covid-19, bureaucracy was tested like never before in recent memory. Thoughts on how we can most effectively create functioning bureaucratic contexts, to support health. This post originally appeared on The Healthiest Goldfish with Sandro Galea and is republished here with permission from the author. Learn more at SandroGalea.org. When I was in New York City I was talking to a colleague and

Read more

Moral Injury on the Frontlines in Public Health: Balancing the Needs of Our Communities and Ourselves

Today, as the pandemic enters yet another phase, the frontline public health workforce faces a different threat: moral injury. The COVID-19 pandemic has been battering the hearts and souls of public health workers for over a year and a half. Many of us on the frontline felt a hint of relief when we were able to see the Herculean vaccination

Read more

Addressing Racism as a Public Health Crisis: A Starting Point to UnDesign Current Systems

The whole world has changed since the NYC Health Department exhibited Undesign the Redline in 2018, but the relevance of the project has only grown. The project, detailed in a newly published report, provided a concrete way for a local health department to engage with residents, community partners, and government employees about structural racism. Since 2018, two events stand out.

Read more

The Aesthetics of a Healthier World

The Healthiest Goldfish with Sandro Galea

Using the tools of art and metaphor to shape a new vision of health. This post originally appeared on The Healthiest Goldfish with Sandro Galea and is republished here with permission from the author. Learn more at SandroGalea.org. As we enter the Sunday of Summer, I wanted today to muse on a somewhat lighter topic than ones I have taken on of late—namely

Read more

Sep 2021: Local Public Health Agencies

Structural Racism Impacts Health. Structural racism is a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work to perpetuate racial group inequity. It is rooted in a hierarchy that privileges one race over another, influencing institutions that govern daily life from housing policies to police profiling and incarceration. It is closely linked to the social determinants

Read more

PHAB Performance Pathways: A New Way Forward for Health Department Recognition

The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB)’s vision is a high-performing governmental public health system that supports all people living their healthiest lives. To help foster performance improvement among all health departments PHAB is developing and launching a new recognition program – the PHAB Performance Pathways Recognition Program (Pathways). Context for Pathways By the end of calendar year 2019, only about

Read more

Resources to Help Schools Promote COVID-19 Vaccination

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends everyone 12 and older get a COVID-19 vaccine to help protect against COVID-19. Schools can play a vital role in promoting vaccination uptake. The CDC has developed resources school leaders can use to support vaccination and improve health literacy in their communities. The Public Health Communications Collaborative (PHCC) promotes the value of public

Read more
« Older Entries