Transforming Our Public Health Systems: Paving the Way for New Opportunities

Welcome!

We are delighted to share with you the first quarterly issue of Transformations, the periodical for the Turning Point: Collaborating for a New Century in Public Health initiative. This publication is designed to provide a forum for nationwide dialogue, communication, and information sharing focused on public health system reform in the states and communities participating in the Turning Point initiative.

Today's public health workforce is comprised of professionals from a multitude of disciplines. While no one is certain as to the actual workforce size, studies have estimated the number to be somewhere around 500,000. This estimate includes administrators, anthropologists, architects, dentists, biostatisticians, economists, educators, engineers, epidemiologists, gerontologists, lawyers, nurses, nutritionists, physicians, psychologists, environmental health specialists, social workers, and undoubtedly many others. The target audience for this publication includes all of the above professionals as well as anyone who wishes to participate in a national dialogue on strategic development aimed at strengthening the public health infrastructure. Our definition of infrastructure is very broad and assumes that environmental health is an integral part of public health.

The effectiveness of our future public health system largely depends on the ability of all of our respective organizations to form strong collaborative relationships across all interested parties, both public and private. The Turning Point initiative serves as a catalyst for the development of these innovative partnerships, bringing together academic institutions, businesses, community groups and leaders, elected officials, health care providers, hospitals, managed care organizations, philanthropy, public health and other governmental units/departments, and a variety of others. We strongly believe that reforming public health will require a thorough examination and strategic redevelopment of the basic ingredients of human, organizational, informational, and financial resources. We must explore approaches that transcend exclusively traditional governmental models so that responsibilities associated with providing public health services are shared. In the long run, these will not only make available additional resources but will eventually build a much larger and diverse constituency actively engaged in supporting public health. Effective reform will also require new ways of thinking about the roles of and methods and strategies employed by the various agencies and entities engaged in the pursuit of a healthier nation. Hence, the formation of new and innovative partnerships is the primary mechanism of action for this initiative. You will be hearing a great deal from the partnerships funded under this initiative as they share their stories of progress and what they are learning on both an individual and collective basis.

A Brief Overview of the Turning Point Initiative

Currently, there are fourteen (14) state and forty-one (41) community partnerships funded under the Turning Point: Collaborating for a New Century in Public Health initiative (see list of funded sites and map on page??). In each of the fourteen states, state and local partnerships developed complementary strategic plans that include the development of a statewide umbrella coalition sharing a common vision of how to build a stronger public health system within their state. At the same time, individual partnerships developed tailored plans to address their specific needs. This complementary strategic development model should provide state and community partnerships with a unique opportunity to step back from the categorical programs and examine alternative models of population-based service delivery - on a systems level - by sharing responsibility across organizations. It is important to note that such comprehensive strategic planning will include an assessment of environmental health issues as well as targeted improvements needed to strengthen the link between public health and medicine.

The National Program Offices

Due to the large scope of this program, two National Program Offices (NPO) were established. The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) will focus most of its attention on local efforts and the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine (UW) will work primarily on the state component. The primary role of the NPOs is to provide technical assistance to state and local participants by brokering resources to assist the partnerships in achieving their goals. Additionally, the NPOs will work in concert to foster a national level commitment to the Turning Point sites and to share what we learn with all those interested.

Clearly, there is no shortage of reading material in public health. Our goal, therefore, is to complement, not duplicate, these resources by providing an interesting and useful vehicle for the Turning Point partnerships to share their experience and create a national dialogue on innovative public health system reform. We invite you to share this publication with your colleagues, and wish you a successful year in public health.

Bobbie Berkowitz is the Program Director for the UW National Program Office which supports the 14 state-level grantees of Turning Point. Vincent Lafronza is the Program Director for the NACCHO National Program Office which assists the 41 community-level grantees.