You and your co-workers have been instructed to develop two slide presentations for your boss, who is the director of a medium-sized local health department in a community with a population of approximately 75,000 persons. Your boss will be speaking for approximately 30 minutes at two different meetings: (1) a meeting of the local Chamber of Commerce at their monthly luncheon meeting; and (2) a meeting of the medical staff at the local hospital. She believes that about 15 slides will be necessary to convey the important messages about what public health is and how it works to these two audiences.
Review the suggested approaches provided by your staff co-workers. These are provided below. After reviewing the input from your co-workers, develop a brief outline of the topics that you would include on each slide. Remember, you are not being asked to create the slides here, but rather to indicate their content! Produce your answers on a separate document to be uploaded at the "Submit Assignments" link. Please use "PH 411 Conferencing Exercises" as the title of your submission.
Suggested Approach A:
I would initially define public health as assisting with the promotion of wellness through teaching the public on prevention of communicable disease and informing the public on available health programs to aid with care in the community. I would then describe what public health entails on a more general level, including, research, categorizing specific disease states that are prevalent in various populations to open the eyes of the public on high risk communities that must be targeted, list environmental factors effecting health, and review nutritional affects on health. I would list the various types of workers involved with public health care and their roles. List public health facilities that are available and their functions, how they progressed and why their is such a strong need for them as statistics now represent, for example with the spread of the HIV virus. Lastly, I would review the governments involvement with funding and establishing these programs.
Suggested Approach B
Title: Public Health at Work
Powerpoint Presentation: Text with pictures on each slide that depict public health workers in their various roles at the local health department and within the community. This would put a personal face to the many aspects of what occurs on a daily basis at a local health department setting.
Key Points:
1. What is Public Health? - IOM definition which states that public health is
“A coordinated effort at the local, state, and federal levels whose mission
is fulfilling society’s interest in assuring conditions in which people
can be healthy”. Highlight the essential functions of public health: assessment,
policy development, assurance through population-based health promotion, protection
and prevention.
2. Brief history of public health with emphasis on key items of basic sanitation,
preventing spread of communicable disease, fight against TB, immunization of
children, improved maternal/child outcomes.
3. Today’s vision of the local health department; share mission and value
statement of the health department
4. Challenges facing public health today: emerging diseases, drug-resistant
organisms, increase in chronic disease, HIV/AIDs epidemics, etc.
5. Give local numbers: STDs, HIV, communicable diseases, etc. to put a “real
face” on the scope of the problems that public health must address
6. What are we doing? Provide overview of services that the local health department
provides with an explanation of the importance of prevention and health education
7. How do we measure what we do? Present methods in which we collect, analyze
and report data on health status and disease indicators; discuss identification
and correction of unhealthy or unsafe conditions throughout our communities
8. Risk reduction and improving behaviors and healthy lifestyles – what
the health department does to directly or indirectly influence health status
of the community; define our day-to-day role in their lives
9. Advocacy for the disadvantaged and our efforts to promote access to service
10. Role of the LHD in promoting policies to assure access to quality care and
discouraging health care disparities
11. Role of the LHD in addressing or influencing policies and legislation related
to health care
12. Why we need the support of the community? Discuss funding sources and department
expenditures. Highlight areas that we consistently fall short in terms of dollars
to support the health department infrastructure.
13. Highlight our partnerships and collaboration efforts; assure community that
we strive to reduce duplication of services
14. Summarize and invite audience to tour the health department
Suggested Approach C:
The presentation I would prepare would be tailored for the audience – business people. It would be very basic and clear in its message. Each slide would convey a single point. The slides would consist of short concepts and would include a significant amount of financial data. I would hope that when the presentation was over the audience would realize that the practices of public health are important for several reasons, but I feel the cost savings of prevention practices would impress them. The following is a description of each slide:
Slide #1: Basic Introduction Slide – Directors Name – County Health Department Name – Background of the slide would be a picture of the County Health Department.
Slide#2: This caption would read: “What is Public Health?” then an explanation/answer would appear on the next slide.
Slide #3: The caption(s) would read: “Its… Protecting the Public from Infectious Diseases, …..Protecting the Public from Contaminated Food, ….Protecting the Public from Environmental Hazards, ….Safe Water, ….Prolonging Life, ….Promoting Healthy Lifestyles
Slide #4: The caption would read: “Public Health is a system of care that creates conditions in which people can be healthy.
Slide #5: This would be a transition slide – It would read “How do we determine what is heath”. The purpose of this slide would be to introduce the concept of health measurements.
Slide #6: The caption would read: “What is health or being healthy?”….. “Its….living longer more productive lives,…. being free of disease…., …understanding what behaviors we should avoid and those we should embrace …,…its being involved in the community…., taking care of ourselves and each other… During this slide I would have the Health Director provide some statistical data about life expectancy since the turn of the century, infant mortality, disease incidences….
Slide #7: The caption would read: “Why are we as Americans not Healthy” (the word “not” would be underlined and in bold).
Slide #8: The caption would read: “We don’t take care of ourselves. We….don’t exercise regularly,…don’t eat right, …smoke too much. Basically we have adopted a lifestyle that inhibits being healthy.” During this slide the Health Director would talk about the statistical evidence related to the slide (e.g. percent of people who exercise regularly, smoking related illness, obesity figures).
Slide #9: I would use this slide to provide some local data about the health status of the county served. I would obtain it from HRSA – Community Health Status Report . The purpose would be to establish a transition to public health’s prevention focus.
Slide #10: The caption would read: “What can we, as individuals and a community do about this?” Here the Director would begin to speak about preventive practices. He/She would explain the conception of prevention.
Slide #11: The caption would have the definitions of Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Prevention. The Director would spend a few minutes explaining each prevention type. She/he would provide examples of each (e.g. immunizations, folic acid, disease control).
Slide #12: The caption would read: “Why should we practice prevention?” During this slide the Director would discuss all the advantages of prevention. He/she would mention the benefits of prevention. He/she would end with an emphasis on the cost savings that can be realized from prevention.
Slide #13: This slide would communicate the message of how a dollar of preventive public health saves 4 dollars of direct care. It would also explain how prevention is a tremendous investment in the community’s health.
Slide #14: This slide would communicate the role the public health department plays in the community. The caption would read: “Your local Health Department is a community partner in safe-guarding the public and promoting our collective health and well being”.
Slide #15: The caption would read: “Thank you for your time. We welcome a visit” . The background would be a picture of the health department building.
PH 411 Conferencing Exercises last revised March 23, 2005 (dkapadia)