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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Building an infrastructure for data-based cancer control planning and intervention implementation.

Health agencies have traditionally played a central role in the characterization of health problems and disease. Data-based planning is considered the cornerstone of effective public health action, enabling state health agencies to use limited resources most effectively to achieve maximum reductions in disease morbidity and mortality. Over the past decade, state health agencies have made important strides in enhancing their capacity for data-based planning for cancer control and in establishing models to facilitate similar planning efforts in other states. Federal programs have served an important catalyst role in establishing states' data-based planning capacity and in facilitating the resulting increase in the application of cancer control science across the United States. This article provides an overview of the infrastructure for data-based cancer control planning and highlights the critical role of federal programs in enhancing the capacity of states to effectively plan and implement cancer control initiatives as well as some of the gaps that remain in states' capacity for data-based planning.

Databases, Factual↗

Creating a bridge between data collection and program planning: a technical assistance model to maximize the use of HIV/AIDS surveillance and service utilization data for planning purposes.

Over time, improvements in HIV/AIDS surveillance and service utilization data have increased their usefulness for planning programs, targeting resources, and otherwise informing HIV/AIDS policy. However, community planning groups, service providers, and health department staff often have difficulty in interpreting and applying the wide array of data now available. We describe the development of the Bridging Model, a technical assistance model for overcoming barriers to the use of data for program planning. Through the use of an iterative feedback loop in the model, HIV/AIDS data products constantly are evolving to better inform the decision-making tasks of their multiple users. Implementation of this model has led to improved data quality and data products and to a greater willingness and ability among stakeholders to use the data for planning purposes.

Data Collection↗

The role of health services research in developing state health policy.

As their responsibility for health policy making grows, states are pursuing a variety of strategies for getting the research and analytical assistance they need, including expanding their relationships with university-based health services research and policy analysis programs. These collaborations raise a number of questions about the fit between states' analytic needs and universities' interest and capacity, and about the appropriate role of the university research organization in the often highly politicized state environment. This paper discusses these questions in light of case studies of universities involved in state health policy in five states: Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Health Planning Technical Assistance↗

Funding, technical assistance, and other resources for school-based health centers.

To facilitate the successful implementation of school-based health centers (SBHCs), funding streams and technical assistance are needed from various resources. The core funding models for service delivery include federal grants, state grants, local funding, community partnerships, foundations, and patient revenue. Technical assistance opportunities are available through professional organizations, SBHC associations, state health departments, and primary care associations at the national and state levels. This article explores the various federal, state, and local funding sources, and the technical assistance resources and opportunities available to SBHCs and their staff.

Adolescent↗

Key components of a statewide Healthy Communities effort.

The Healthy Cities/Healthy Communities movement is in its second decade. Examples of both successful and unsuccessful Healthy Communities efforts can be found in large and small communities across the country. What are the key components of a successful effort? Movement leaders from California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina as well as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention have contributed their collective experience to identifying the key components of a statewide Healthy Communities effort. Assessing the degree to which a state has these key components in place can help the state take steps to assure support for Healthy Communities.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.↗

Using a participatory approach to provide assistance to community-based organizations: the Seattle Partners Community Research Center.

Community-based organizations (CBOs), including grassroots, voluntary organizations, are an important part of any strategy for addressing social determinants of health. Because of the challenges faced by CBOs, "enabling systems" may be neededto help them survive and fulfill theirmissions, andresearchers have a variety of skills that allow them to play a role in such systems. The potential for researchers to play a role in supporting CBOs led the Seattle Urban Research Center (known as Seattle Partners) to establish a community research center (CRC) as one of its core projects. This article describes the operation of the Seattle Partners CRC and gives examples of how it has worked collaboratively with CBOs in providing technical assistance. The Discussion section draws from the CRC experience to examine the benefits and challenges of collaboration and the trade-off between capacity building and providing direct technical assistance in promoting long-term CBO viability.

Community Health Services↗

Building capacity for HIV/AIDS prevention among Asian Pacific Islander organizations: the experience of a culturally appropriate capacity-building program in Southern California.

This article has two goals: (1) to outline a conceptual model for culturally appropriate HIV prevention capacity building; (2) to present the experiences from a 3-year program provided by Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team to Asian Pacific Islander (API) organizations in southern California. The participating organizations were of two types: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) social organizations and social service agencies not targeting LGBTQ. These organizations were selected for participation because of their commitment to HIV/AIDS issues in API communities. An organizational survey and staff observations were used to explore changes in capacity. The organizations were mostly small, targeted diverse populations, served a large geographic area (southern California as a region), and were knowledgeable about HIV. Organizations became more viable (more capacity in human resources, financial, external relations, and strategic management), but also more unstable (large growth in paid staff and board members), and showed more capacity in HIV knowledge environments (especially less stigma and more sensitivity to diverse populations). The results suggest that capacity can expand over a short period of time, but as capacity increases, organizational viability/stability and HIV knowledge environments change, meaning that different types of technical assistance would be needed for sustainability.

California↗

A description of the Southern Rural Access Program's practice management strategies.

CONTEXT: Many state, federal, and foundation resources have been invested in improving the recruitment of primary care providers to rural communities. The Southern Rural Access Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has provided varying levels of support to several southern states to assist with retention of those providers. PURPOSE: This study describes the strategies that 6 states used to develop and implement practice management technical assistance services for rural health care providers. METHODS: Practice managers in each of the 6 states were surveyed regarding how their service was structured, what types of entities were eligible, and the nature of the technical assistance offered. Information regarding what types of entities used the service, characteristics of the practices, and the number of practices served was also collected. FINDINGS: The survey results showed that almost half (46%) of all practices assisted were private stand-alone physician practices, with overall practice assessments being the practice management service rendered most often. Although the type of organisational home for the technical assistance services varied by state, overall states employed an average of 1.67 full-time equivalent practice managers (0.81 full-time equivalent supported by RWJF) and received an average of $136,055 per state from the RWJF for the 2-year period beginning April 2002 for practice management support. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the study found that the type of organizational home did not appear to affect the type of technical assistance services offered. However, the type of orgnizational home did appear to affect what types of providers used the service, with trade associations assisting their members or constituents at least half the time.

Community Health Planning↗

Enhancing rural economic development: crafting a health care revolving loan fund.

Community development efforts in economically depressed rural areas are often hampered by poor access to health care. One barrier to rural provider availability is the difficulty of obtaining capital for rural health care infrastructure development. Commercial lending institutions are limited in their ability to respond to these needs due to traditional lending criteria--creditworthiness, equity, experience, management ability, and profits or cash flow. This paper describes a rural health care revolving loan fund crafted to address these needs for capital while addressing the goal of improving health care access in rural Arkansas. The Arkansas Rural Health Revolving Loan Fund is a model for other states interested in two processes that work synergistically: (1) increasing access to capital to strengthen the rural primary health care infrastructure and (2) making health care more economically viable by integrating the fund's efforts with those of other community development initiatives.

Arkansas↗

Using technical assistance to strengthen tobacco control capacity: evaluation findings from the Tobacco Technical Assistance Consortium.

Immediately following the Master Settlement Agreement of 1998 and the corresponding growth of new and existing tobacco control programs, it became clear that tobacco prevention and control organizations required technical assistance to help them carry out their missions. The Tobacco Technical Assistance Consortium (TTAC) was established at the Rollins School of Public Health in 2001 to provide tailored technical assistance services to meet the needs of the expanded workforce and to build tobacco control capacity. To understand whether and how TTAC's technical assistance enhanced capacity, TTAC conducted an evaluation of its services through semi-structured telephone interviews with the primary contacts and one to two additional informants for each of 48 technical assistance services provided over an 18-month period. The majority of respondents reported they had increased knowledge and skills in tobacco control, strengthened leadership skills, developed or strengthened partnerships with other tobacco control organizations, and changed the way they practice tobacco control following the assistance. More modest improvements were noted in the areas of increased organizational support and policy change at the local or state level.

Education, Public Health Professional↗

Universities as resources to state health agencies.

In a survey of the 50 State health agencies in the spring of 1992, officials were asked about their manpower and research needs in the specific areas of administration, behavioral and social science, education and information, environmental health, environmental protection, epidemiology, laboratory, law, occupational health, policy and planning, and statistics. In all, 40 agencies (80 percent) responded. Indepth telephone interviews to determine whether universities and schools and graduate programs in public health filled these needs completed the data collection process. Agency officials indicated that their resources were least adequate in environmental protection, behavioral and social science, and occupational health. They did not feel their research needs were being met. There was a general feeling that universities and schools and programs in public health have different agendas than State agencies and that practical solutions to the shortage of research resources are not forthcoming from these sources. Suggestions are made as to what can be done to improve relationships between those who train public health personnel and those who employ them.

Data Collection↗

Supporting community-based prevention and health promotion initiatives: developing effective technical assistance systems.

As research evidence for the effectiveness of community-based prevention has mounted, so has recognition of the gap between research and community practice. As a result, state and local governments are taking a more active role in building the capacity of community-based organizations to deliver evidence-based prevention interventions. Innovations are taking place in the establishment of technical assistance or support systems to influence the prevention and health education activities of community-based organizations. Several challenges for technical assistance systems are described: (1) setting prevention priorities and allocating limited technical assistance resources, (2) balancing capacity-building versus program dissemination efforts, (3) collaborating across categorical problem areas, (4) designing technical assistance initiatives with enough "dose strength" to have an effect, (5) balancing fidelity versus adaptation in program implementation, (6) building organizational cultures that support innovation, and (7) building local evaluative capacity versus generalizable evaluation findings.

Community Health Services↗

Developing cancer control capacity in state and local public health agencies.

In 1986, the National Cancer Institute began a major grant program to enhance the technical capabilities of public health departments in cancer prevention and control. This effort, commonly referred to as "capacity building" for cancer control, provided funding to support eight State and one local health department. The program focused on developing the knowledge and skills of health department personnel to implement intervention programs in such areas as smoking cessation, diet modification, and breast and cervical cancer screening. The grants ranged from 2 to 5 years in length, with funding of $125,000 to $1.6 million per grant. The total for the program was $7.4 million. While the priorities set for these grants were nominally similar, their capacity building activities in cancer prevention and control evolved into unique interventions reflecting the individual needs and priorities of each State or locality. Their experiences illustrate that technical development for planning, implementing, and evaluating cancer prevention and control programs is a complex process that must occur at multiple levels, regardless of overall approach. Factors found to contribute to successful implementation of technical development programs include* commitment of the organization's leadership to provide adequate support for staff and activities and to keep cancer prevention and control on the organizational agenda,* the existence of appropriate data to monitor and evaluate programs,* appropriately trained staff,* building linkages with State and community agencies and coalitions to guide community action,* an established plan or process for achieving cancer control objectives,* access to the advice of and participation of individual cancer and health experts,* an informed State legislature,* diffusion of cancer prevention and control efforts,and* the ability to obtain funds needed for future activities.

Community Participation↗

Community demonstration project initiative: technical support for program development at the community level.

Select population groups are at greater than average risk for cancer incidence and mortality. Lack of experience reaching high-risk populations, particularly those characterized by high proportions of the socioeconomically disadvantaged, presented a challenge to the American Cancer Society (ACS). A partial solution was to integrate outreach to high-risk populations into ACS national priorities and to fund community demonstration projects consistent with these priorities. Technical assistance (TA), which includes expert advice and problem solving, was provided during the first phase to facilitate the development of these projects into "model" projects to learn what initiatives can best be disseminated, or diffused, into target populations. TA also was used to assess how it can enhance the potential for replication. Evaluation of this initiative resulted in a plan to disseminate model projects to selected ACS divisions with varied resources and capabilities (e.g., outreach to high-risk populations, planning, program development, and evaluation) for replication. During the next phase, projects will be evaluated to document the role of TA in facilitating local empowerment and nationwide diffusion of effective cancer prevention and control programs.

Community Health Services↗

A conceptual model for understanding effective coalitions involved in health promotion programming.

Funding agencies are increasingly focused on community coalitions as effective entities for promoting public health programs. Yet, there has been no conceptual model for understanding how effective coalition infrastructure works to facilitate a learning environment, wherein coalition members and leaders receive ongoing training and technical assistance needed to accomplish their external programming goals. This article presents a conceptual model for measuring the internal effectiveness of coalitions [Internal Coalition Outcome Hierarchy (ICOH)]. The ICOH model served as the basis for development of the evaluation instrument, Internal Coalition Effectiveness, which measures internal coalition effectiveness based on achievement of organizational outcomes at each of the model's seven hierarchical levels. The ICOH conceptual model has broad application for public health nurses who are frequently called on to serve as evaluators for community coalitions engaged in health programming. The model has implications for evaluators to use in teaching coalition members and leaders about their internal strengths and areas for improvement, so that coalitions can develop more effective internal structures and thereby promote long-term sustainability.

Community Participation↗

The coalition technical assistance and training framework: helping community coalitions help themselves.

Coalition staff, leaders, and members need training to promote coalition building and maintenance as well as ongoing technical assistance. The Coalition Technical Assistance and Training Framework uses a 6-step process to diagnose coalition strengths and challenges and provide a prescription for action. Re-evaluation after a specified time period helps determine whether a coalition adopted recommended changes in coalition participants, structures, and/or processes and progressed through stages of development. This empowerment approach helps coalition staff and members help themselves to be more effective and efficient. The framework was piloted with the Virginia Healthy Start Initiative from November 1997 to June 2001. Seven perinatal councils that focused on preventing low-weight births and infant mortality adopted 75% of the recommended actions within 1 year. Results from a pre and post-assessment tool after 3 years showed significant progress in the coalitions' ability to develop effective participants, processes, and structures

Community Participation↗