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Dr. Sejal Hathi, director of the Oregon Health Authority and an ASTHO Member, explains her state’s bold initiative to eliminate health inequities; Kelsey Tillema, ASTHO senior workforce analyst, tells us about a new resource ASTHO has to support...
Dr. Sejal Hathi, director of the Oregon Health Authority and an ASTHO Member, explains her state’s bold initiative to eliminate health inequities; Kelsey Tillema, ASTHO senior workforce analyst, tells us about a new resource ASTHO has to support workforce well-being; PublicHealthCareers.org could be where you find your next great hire; an ASTHO article outlines trends related to public health data modernization; and Dr. Brannon Traxler, deputy Ddirector of Health Promotion and Services and the chief medical officer for the South Carolina Department of Public Health as well as an ASTHO Member, is the brand new secretary and teasurer for ASTHO’s Board of Directors.
Oregon Health Authority Web Page: Oregon Health Forward
ASTHO Web Page: PH-HERO Workforce Resource Center
ASTHO Web Page: Modernizing Public Health Data and Protecting Privacy
ASTHO Web Page: Brannon Traxler
JANSON SILVERS:
This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Wednesday, February 5, 2025. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
SEJAL HATHI:
Oregon Health Forward is a statewide mobilization that we launched in December to advance progress toward our strategic goal of eliminating health inequities by 2030.
SILVERS:
Dr. Sejal Hathi, director of the Oregon Health Authority, explains her state's bold initiative to eliminate health inequities. Oregon Health forward has three distinct parts.
HATHI:
The first is our strategic plan, which lays out a comprehensive roadmap, including key strategies, actions, and metrics, we will use to hold ourselves accountable and measure progress toward achieving health equity.
SILVERS:
The next portion brings stakeholders together.
HATHI:
The second is a statewide call to action, which we are leading in partnership with the national CDC Foundation. And this call to action is marshaling big and bold commitments from public and private sector partners across the state, in and out of healthcare, that advance progress toward our strategic goal,
SILVERS:
Lastly, an inward focus on the department.
HATHI:
The third part is our Transparency, Accountability, and Belonging Initiative, and that is an internal effort to improve customer service, promote accountability, and increase employee engagement, in other words, to ensure we are equipping ourselves with the core organizational capabilities, we need to consistently deliver on our promises to the people of Oregon.
SILVERS:
You can hear how Hathi and her team plan to implement this plan on tomorrow's episode of this newscast. It will be on your mobile device or wherever you find your podcast at 5 a.m. sharp.
ASTHO has been working to take care of the public health workforce for years. ASTHO's Kelsey Tillema says ASTHO's Workforce Well-being Technical Package has many steps that health departments can take.
KELSEY TILLEMA:
So, it's a collection of recommendations from ASTHO, specifically for supporting state, territorial, and local health department efforts, mostly related to addressing burnout, moral injury, those kinds of things, among governmental public health workers, and to just improve retention overall.
SILVERS:
Tillema, along with her colleague, Allison Budzinski, recently created a recommendation to action worksheet to enhance the technical package.
TILLEMA:
And we really just wanted to help bring the technical package to life. So, the worksheet walks the user through identifying different gaps and needs related to workforce well-being and retention. And it's really intended to like help spark actions to address these areas of assessment.
SILVERS:
Tillema believes the interactive tool can be used in many different ways.
TILLEMA:
It could be used as a landscape assessment of current workforce well-being efforts taking place. Could be used to set goals for workforce well-being or as an assessment for a workforce development plan. Son there's a lot of options.
SILVERS:
ASTHO aims to make its resources focused on organizational culture and well-being more accessible. You can find many of those resources on ASTHO's, PH-HERO web page. The link is in the show notes.
Speaking of workforce well-being, if you're looking for your next great hire, make sure you always check out Publichealthcareers.org. The website could be your pathway to bolster your team, the link is in the show notes.
Also, as part of ASTHO's Legislative Prospectus series, you can learn more about modernizing public health data and protecting privacy. Read about the legislative trends that could affect your department by clicking the link in the show notes.
Finally, this morning, Dr. Brandon Traxler is the brand new secretary and treasurer for ASTHO's Board of Directors. Traxler is deputy director of Health Promotion and services and the chief medical officer for the South Carolina Department of Public Health. You can head to the show notes to read her bio.
That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Janson Silvers. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.
