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What's New

  • ASTHO's 2018 Annual Meeting

    Registration is now open for ASTHO's 2018 Annual Meeting. This premier public health event is the largest gathering of state and territorial health officials, federal public health officials, academic leaders, private sector health industry executives and leading public health nonprofit agencies.

  • Introducing the Center for Population Health Strategies

    ASTHO’s newly launched Center for Population Health Strategies shares proven and cost-effective population health improvement approaches with state and territorial health officials and their leadership teams.

  • Public Health is All Around You Infographic

    The work of public health is often invisible, but it saves lives every day. Whether you see them or not, state and territorial public health professionals work 24/7 to protect us from health threats, promote our health, and prevent us from experiencing diseases. This infographic shows how public health keeps you and your community healthy.

  • Building a Healthier Nation: The State of State and Territorial Public Health

    ASTHO’s new report highlights the five biggest public health issues facing state and territorial health agencies in 2018. The nation’s opioid crisis remains a high priority, while infectious diseases and other threats strain the capacity of our public health system. The report calls for sustained investments to promote health, prevent disease, and protect America’s health security.

  • ASTHO Profile of State and Territorial Public Health

    The ASTHO Profile presents longitudinal data on public health agency activities, structure, and resources, as well as individual agency profiles for all those who participated in the 2016 survey. In addition to the full report, ASTHO developed three infographics, a top findings report, and an animated video.

  • Summary: The Administration's FY 2018 Budget

    This resource summarizes the Administration's FY 2018 Budget Blueprint.

Recent Publications

  • ASTHO’s Guide on Getting Started with the CDC’s 6|18 Initiative

    ASTHO developed a tool for use by state Medicaid and public health agency staff to help them determine whether their agencies want to form a team to implement evidence-based interventions identified in the CDC’s 6|18 Initiative: Accelerating Evidence into Action. State teams can use this tool to collect information on current programs, consider 6|18’s alignment with current health priorities, and identify important stakeholders to engage.

  • Vermont Falls Prevention Quality Improvement Learning Collaborative Issue Brief

    This issue brief provides an overview of the Vermont Falls Prevention Quality Improvement Learning Collaborative, developed by ASTHO in partnership with CDC and the Vermont Department of Health (VDH). Four counties and affiliated hospitals participated in the learning collaborative, including Bennington (Southwestern Vermont Medical Center), Newport (North Country Hospital), Burlington (University of Vermont Medical Center), and Lebanon (Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire). This brief also describes the counties’ progress following the project’s implementation, and provides strategies and lessons learned that other states and territories can use to promote and implement interventions to reduce older adult falls.

  • Improving Drug Specificity and Completeness on Death Certificates for Overdose Deaths Meeting Report

    This meeting report highlights contributions from several key experts on barriers and opportunities related to improving the entirety and specificity of drug information on death certificates for overdose deaths. The report includes information on the death investigation and death certificate completion processes, key priorities for improving drug specificity on death certificates, and short and long-term strategies to addressing this issue.

  • Social Determinants of Health: A Quick Reference Guide for State Offices of Rural Health and State and Territorial Health Officials

    This quick reference guide, written in collaboration with the National Organizations of State Offices of Rural Health, outlines some of the major social determinants of health, which research shows has a large impact on health status. The document is aimed at familiarizing state offices of rural health and state and territorial health officials with the impacts of social determinants of health on rural populations. The guide outlines key interplays between health status and the social issues of housing, transportation, education, and food insecurity, and provides targeted resources and state examples to help public health officials learn more and take action on these significant drivers of health status, outcomes, and costs.

  • Territorial Public Health Performance and Accreditation 101

    ASTHO has developed “Territorial Public Health Performance and Accreditation 101: A Resource and Guide for Territorial Health Agencies. This guide is designed to provide THAs with a simple framework for improving their territorial public health systems’ overall performance, as well as the health of the communities they serve.

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  • California Shares Insights on Preparing for Reaccreditation

    National public health accreditation enables health departments to provide high-quality public health services to the community. According to the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB), accredited health departments play an important role in promoting population health with services that reach over 214 million individuals all across the nation. The accreditation process helps health departments identify strengths and weaknesses and undertake performance management and quality improvement (QI) initiatives. It also provides a framework for health departments to improve external relationships with their governing entities and other stakeholders and their communities.

  • State Approaches to Community Health Worker Certification

    A community health worker (CHW) is defined as “a frontline public health worker who is a trusted member of and/or has an unusually close understanding of the community served.” CHWs typically share the lived experience of members of their communities. With a growing body of evidence supporting the effectiveness of CHWs, policymakers continue to explore ways to leverage the role of CHWs for improving health and wellbeing in the states and other jurisdictions. Some of these policy decisions focus on issues of reimbursement and funding for CHWs, as well as the scope of practice for CHWs. Another key policy issue for CHWs that continues to evolve is certification. Certification programs are often used to standardize the education and training requirements for a profession. However, such programs may also present a barrier if the certification requirements are too costly, time-consuming, or onerous for those seeking to join the profession. Below is a brief summary of how two states, Arizona and Maryland, addressed CHW certification during this past legislative session.

  • State Public Health Strategies for Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences

    Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are stressful or traumatic events during childhood where continual exposure to stressors in the absence of nurturing relationships, known as toxic stress, can damage a child’s developing brain. For this reason, ACEs are a major risk factor for poor early brain development. ACEs not only contribute to suboptimal brain development in children, but they also have lasting effects on overall health and are linked to causes of morbidity and mortality in adults.

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