Public Engagement Projects

ASTHO has been involved in planning and holding public engagement meetings on several important topics, including at-risk populations and healthcare-associated infections.

As part of the At-Risk Populations Project that began in 2007, ASTHO conducted a series of engagement meetings to convene at-risk individuals and national stakeholders to provide key input.

During the first year of the project, three meetings were held in March of 2008: one with members of the public in Boston, MA; one with members of the public in Kansas City, MO; and one with stakeholders in Washington, DC.

In the first half of 2009, meetings with tribal representatives were held to enhance the national guidance's capacity to assist tribal public health planners in assisting at-risk members of their communities. The first meeting was held in February in New Mexico and included representatives from CDC's Tribal Consultation Advisory Committee along with representatives from area tribal agencies. The second meeting was held in Mille Lacs, MN with members of different bands from across the state.

Input from all meetings was incorporated into the guidance (updated version to be released soon).

ASTHO was involved with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Keystone Center in planning a series of engagement meetings in the summer and fall 2009 to obtain input and feedback on the HHS Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections. Five meetings were held including a national stakeholder meeting in Washington, DC, and regional meetings in Denver, CO, Chicago, IL, and Seattle, WA.

The meetings sought feedback on how best to operationalize the HHS Action Plan, specifically on the potential for adoption of a singular national set of healthcare-associated infection reduction metrics and targets; considerations for implementing the HHS Action Plan and achieving the targets; considerations for fostering accountability in a multifaceted approach to reducing healthcare-associated infections; and the focus and approach to a national messaging campaign aimed at reducing healthcare-associated infections. In addition to the general stakeholder meeting, IT stakeholder meetings were held to engage healthcare and public health professionals in a discussion on IT infrastructure and personnel needs for collecting, reporting, and analyzing HAI data.

In a workshop convened jointly by the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO) and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) on September 22-23, 2009, in Denver, CO, staff from state and local health departments and community-based organizations from around the country explored how to capture the value of public engagement.  This workshop was a follow-up to one convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) November 10-11, 2008 to identify lessons learned from the Public Engagement Pilot Project on Pandemic Influenza (PEPPPI).  

During subsequent years, CDC conducted additional public engagement meetings and in 2008 awarded funding to six states to conduct their own public engagement meetings on pandemic influenza. This funding opportunity held five purposes:

1. To inform and assist state and local level decision-makers involved in pending, values-oriented policy decisions related to pandemic influenza planning
2. To evaluate the effectiveness of engaging both citizens-at-large and other stakeholders in public health policy decisions
3. To increase state and local capacity to effectively engage the public on policy choices
4. To empower citizens to participate effectively in public decision-making work
5. To achieve results that enhance public trust in public health decisions regarding policy choices

Representatives from each of the six projects gathered in Denver to discuss lessons learned from their projects, with the goal of providing information for a summary report to serve as an educational tool for future state and local public health engagement projects.