Advocating for public health

Boards of Health (BOH), comprised of elected officials and community leaders, play an essential role in the advocacy and governance of local health departments, yet their training needs are often overlooked. It is important that public health administrators recognize the role of BOH members and the need to train this segment of the public health workforce to most effectively support the work of the health department. To address the training needs of the local BOH members in Georgia, the Emory Public Health Training Center (EPHTC) developed a series of trainings through a subcontract with the Georgia Public Health Association. The trainings are based on needs assessment data collected in spring 2011 where BOH members as well as state and local public health leadership were asked about priority areas for BOH training. The data indicated that community dimension, analytic/assessment, and policy development/program planning skills were the most important skill areas for BOH members. Key topic areas included: core functions of public health; overview of public health programs; roles, responsibilities, and authority; and budget issues. In an effort to reach the 1,113 local BOH members in Georgia, the in-person trainings are held in both metropolitan Atlanta and rural areas. Most recently, video modules that address key public health functions have been developed for use at local BOH meetings. Using Georgia as a case study, this presentation will discuss the needs assessment results – in particular, the data from local public health leaders; training approach used in Georgia; and lessons learned for other communities.