Recession has hit health departments hard: 23,000 jobs (15%) lost, core funding cut

Funding and job cuts as a result of the economic recession have weakened the impact public health departments have on their communities, says a series of articles published in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice.

"Continued cuts to public health services will have an unsatisfactory impact on the health of individuals and the community," said Dr. Lloyd F. Novick, the journal's editor-in-chief. "There is a heightened vulnerability at the present time for adverse health outcomes. Above all, the realization of the vital need to maintain resources for our public health delivery system is imperative."

In 2009, 23,000 jobs in public health departments were eliminated, 15 percent of the total. By 2010, more than half the agencies had a cut in core funding. As they scramble to make do with their new bottom lines, more cuts are expected. "The current, alarming trend of diminishing resources, reduced workforce and impaired capacity to maintain public health programs pose major hurdles for local agencies, with consequences that will be felt well into the future," said Dr. Rachel Willard of the University of California.

To view an article on the impact of the 2008-2010 economic recession on local health departments, one on a local health department that is providing only essential services, and one on enhancing public health value in an era of declining resources, click here.

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UK professor named chair of new national board that will grant accreditation to local, state and other health departments

Dr. F. Douglas Scutchfield, director of the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Services and Systems Research and the Peter P. Bosomworth Professor of Health Services Research and Policy at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health, has been named chair of the first Accreditation Committee of the Public Health Accreditation Board.

Jointly funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the board was created to  administer the new accreditation process for state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments. The program was launched in September 2011, and health departments are already beginning to apply. The 11-member Accreditation Committee will make accreditation decisions on behalf of the PHAB board of directors, a UK press release said.

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Sept. 13 forum in Somerset will explore how rural communities can get healthier and get better care at lower cost

"In an era of tight budgets and strained resources, Kentucky and its rural communities can no longer afford 'business as usual' in the delivery of health care services," write Susan Zepeda and Amy Watts of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. "As health care costs increase and health status declines, the question becomes: How can we ensure rural Kentuckians get better health care at lower costs?"

Zepeda, the foundation's president, and Watts, is senior program officer, see "promising opportunities" for rural communities to reshape health care, such as working with local health departments and civic leaders to "create communities that support healthy behaviors" and better integrate the health system, with special attention for the chronically ill.

These and other issues and ideas for rural health are on the agenda of the foundation's ninth annual Howard L. Bost Memorial Health Policy Forum, to be held Tuesday, Sept. 13 at the Center for Rural Development in Somerset. The forum will include state and national leaders. "Rather than wait for solutions from Washington, forum speakers will share strategies Kentucky’s civic leaders can put into place at the local, state and regional levels. Many will share ways that Kentucky is already doing this," Zepeda and Watts write in an op-ed article distributed to Kentucky newspapers.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Len Nichols, who founded and directed Health CEOs for Health Reform, a group that helped policymakers see that reform of health insurance and health-care can be reformed together. Dr. Kavita Patel, a physician and former RAND Corp. researcher now at the Brookings Institution, will bring insights on how to achieve better care and better health at lower costs. Other experts from Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina will share "practical policy strategies for positive health change in these challenging times," and smaller sessions will allow participants to engage with the speakers, Zepeda and Watts write, saying the forum's goal is to "provide accessible, safe and effective health care to nearly half of Kentucky’s citizens who call rural Kentucky home." More information is available on the foundation’s website, http://www.healthy-ky.org/.

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Retiring Boyle County health director has played important roles in the community; many of his counterparts do likewise

The man behind Danville's smoke-free ordinance is stepping down from his position as Boyle County's public health director. "I've got a 100-acre farm and I plan to pursue those interests and do some extensive traveling," Roger Trent told The Advocate-Messenger's Mandy Simpson. (Advocate-Messenger photo)

Trent has been at the helm of the health department for 12 years. During his tenure, he "successfully lobbied the Danville City Commission to pass an ordinance banning smoking in all enclosed public places of employment," Simpson reports. He also started smoking cessation classes at the health department, collected food for families in need, and headed efforts during the 2009 ice storm. "He will certainly be missed, and I hope we can find somebody equivalent," said David C. Liebschutz, chairman of the Boyle County Board of Health.

Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and publisher of Kentucky Health News, commented on Trent's impact on his community: "County health directors rarely get noticed except when they create controversy or retire," he said. "They play, or should play, a more important role in the community than local news media might suggest." (Read more)

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