142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Evaluation of the Pilot Implementation of the Collaboration Toolkit for Local Health Departments and School Districts

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Katharine Arrington, MPH , UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Kimberley Shoaf, DrPH , Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Kaitlin O'Keefe, Ph.D., M.P.H. , Department of Health Sciences, California State University, Northridge, Northridge, CA
Session description: A small pilot study implementing a collaborative toolkit was conducted, at the end of 2013, and this session focuses on the evaluation of the pilot.  

Introduction: Collaborations between community and health organizations can increase the efficiency of public health efforts and strengthen each other’s ability to fulfill the needs of their community. In an effort to improve emergency preparedness capabilities of school systems, a toolkit was designed to enhance collaborations between school systems and local health departments (LHDs). The purpose of this project was to evaluate the pilot implementation of this Collaboration Toolkit in LHD and school system pairs. 

Methods: Results from a national survey evaluating perspectives on current joint emergency preparedness efforts among LHDs and school systems guided the development of a collaborative toolkit.  Evaluation of the pilot implementation focused on observed differences between pre and post implementation perspectives on collaborative efforts between two matched pairs of LHDs and school districts. 

Results: Pilot implementation of the toolkit resulted in both pairs establishing meetings to discuss preparedness efforts.  Both LHDs described their efforts with school districts as successful and indicated an increased desire to further collaborative efforts.  All four agencies completed toolkit informational forms for their partner organization , furthering internal/external communication.

Discussion: Collaborative efforts can be beneficial for both LHDs and school systems in emergency preparedness efforts.  The Collaboration Toolkit has the potential to increase the benefit of such efforts by enhancing communication and joint efforts.  This evaluation provided recommendations on toolkit re-design for a larger scale toolkit implementation scheduled for 2014.

Learning Areas:

Other professions or practice related to public health
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs

Learning Objectives:
Describe how the Collaboration Toolkit can help to strengthen emergency preparedness and response efforts in both school districts and local health departments. Identify changes in attitudes towards collaborative efforts from participants following the pilot toolkit implementation. Describe how the toolkit evaluation can serve to increase the efficiency of future efforts in enhancing organizational collaborations in public health.

Keyword(s): Emergency Preparedness, Communication

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have worked as project manager on the Collaborative toolkit for 3 years, and oversaw the pilot implementation of the toolkit.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4291.0: Posters in School Health II