Recorded presentation

Johanna M. Hinman, MPH, CHES, Rollins School of Public Health, Dept of Environmental and Occupational Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Rd., NE, Atlanta, GA 30322, 404-712-8553, jhinman@sph.emory.edu and Howard Frumkin, MD, DrPH, The Rollins School of Public Health, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Road, NE, Atlanta, GA 30322.

Modern environmental health challenges such as hazardous waste sites, sick buildings, disease clusters, and disaster planning require skills beyond the traditional health department functions in environmental health, which typically have focused on sanitarian duties (e.g., inspecting restaurants, septic tanks, and swimming pools, and issuing permits). To address the new skills required and increase environmental health capacity, CDC and ASPH funded schools of public health to develop partnerships with health departments and create Centers of Excellence. The Southern Center of Excellence in Environmental Health Practice (SCEEHP) was designed to build health department capacity to respond to current and emerging environmental public health challenges. SCEEHP provided training based on the Ten Essential Environmental Health Services and Core Competencies for the Effective Practice of Environmental Health via distance-based techniques and traditional on-campus sessions, serving health department personnel from Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. Program objectives were to: provide environmental health training to key personnel from local health departments; enhance the capacity of a school of public health to address environmental health practice issues; and produce training materials that will be broadly useful in environmental health training. Training modules included innovative topics such as environmental justice, program evaluation and media relations. Training materials are being revised and reformatted for use by environmental health professionals nationwide. Materials developed by SCEEHP and the other centers of excellence will be made available via the Web and/or by other electronic formats to allow wider dissemination. This presentation will showcase specific training materials and discuss opportunities for further distribution.

Learning Objectives:

• 3. Identify the core competencies for environmental health and the essential environmental health services;
  7. Describe the development of training and materials to build environmental health capacity in public health departments.

Keywords: Environmental Health, Training

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: The Southern Center of Excellence in Environmental Health Practice is based at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University.
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Author is employed at the Southern Center of Excellence in Environmental Health Practice at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University. The Center is funded by ASPH/CDC, project #1943-21/23.

Recorded presentation