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Christina Severin, ASTHO’s Director of Public Health Law, outlines upcoming Supreme Court cases that will impact public health; Susan Donnelly, Workforce Director at the Oklahoma State Department of Health, shares the work her team is doing to...
Christina Severin, ASTHO’s Director of Public Health Law, outlines upcoming Supreme Court cases that will impact public health; Susan Donnelly, Workforce Director at the Oklahoma State Department of Health, shares the work her team is doing to support the public health workforce; applications are open to join the STRETCH 2.0 project; and sign up for ASTHO’s Public Health Weekly email newsletter.
ASTHO Webpage: Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! Public Health in the Courts
ASTHO Webpage: Empowering Connection Through STRETCH
ASTHO Webpage: STRETCH 2.0 Community Collaborative Cohort Opportunity
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ROBERT JOHNSON:
This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Wednesday, September 27, 2023. I'm Robert Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
CHRISTINA SEVERIN:
Interestingly enough, so far, there's no cases on the court's docket that are either purely or directly public health-related. But there are actually a few that might be of interest to both health officials and public health agencies.
JOHNSON:
Christina Severin is ASTHO's director of public health law, talking about cases the U.S. Supreme Court will consider when it begins a new session in October.
SEVERIN:
There are two cases that the court is going to hear about social media actions by government officials. And this depending on how the court decides these cases, it could determine how those officials or health agencies generally approach their social media accounts and their behavior online and the behavior of their employees or officials.
JOHNSON:
Severin says another case on the agenda is one that could impact opioid settlement.
SEVERIN:
So, this is a case about the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy reorganization plan. And the court's decision here about whether this plan can go forward could delay the distribution of benefits to individuals or states that, under the terms of that bankruptcy plan, would get benefits. So, that reorganization plan essentially is on hold while the court decides whether or not it can move forward.
JOHNSON:
State courts also have cases worth watching, including one that could limit public health authority in Michigan.
SEVERIN:
So in Michigan, the Court of Appeals found that a state law that gave the health official power to issue these emergency orders to control epidemics was giving that official too much power and violated the state's constitution. And in that case, the health department had submitted an appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.
ROBERT JOHNSON:
Severin writes about these and other cases in a new ASTHO blog article. You can read it using the link in the show notes.
Public health managers can have a big impact on the health and wellbeing of the workforce. Susan Donnelly is workforce director at the Oklahoma State Department of Health.
SUSAN DONNELLY:
One of the things that we've realized as we've been having discussions about this is that in order to radically change the employee experience for us, that starts with changing the manager experience because they shaped 70% of the employee experience with us; whether it's training, development, coaching, providing that health and wellbeing that we need to address with our workforce.
JOHNSON:
Oklahoma is working to develop a workforce assessment and a listening strategy that doesn't overwhelm people with too many surveys.
DONNELLY:
We're working to identify redundancies and the types of surveys that we do, streamline when and how those surveys are distributed, and then leverage that data together to share across different people that need it, so that we can ask less questions to our workforce, but use the same efforts to optimize how we utilize the data. So, I think it's about really knowing that we can't give that which we don't have. And if we don't invest in our people, if we don't give them the tools and the resources and the skill sets to be able to do the best jobs for the people, they are in turn not going to be able to provide that level of service or care to the citizens of Oklahoma.
JOHNSON:
The hope is the workforce investment will lead to better public health outcomes. Learn more about work in public health by visiting PublicHealthCareers.org. The link is in the show notes.
Also today, engagement and partnerships at the community level could help agencies better address inequities. The STRETCH project gives participants the tools to achieve those goals. It's a joint effort of ASTHO, the CDC Foundation, and the Michigan Public Health Institute, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. A second cohort of agencies interested in learning these approaches is forming now. It's called STRETCH 2.0. The deadline to apply is October 6. Learn more and sign up using the link in the show notes.
Finally, this morning get even more public health news every week from ASTHO's Public Health Weekly email newsletter. You can join the list by clicking the link in the show notes.
We'd also like to remind you to follow this newscast on your podcast player, and ASTHO on social media. We're on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Robert Johnson. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.
