Our new commentary in the journal Health Promotion Practice proposes a different way to think about advancing community health, safety, and wellbeing—by taking on the systems that too often produce illness, injury, and inequity. We also look at efforts underway in Minnesota, New York, California, Wisconsin, and elsewhere to illustrate how our System of Prevention framework can support health leaders and communities in building a 21 st-century approach to public health practice. The commentary is currently available online and will be published in the July issue of Health Promotion Practice. |
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Here’s an excerpt:
The nation’s health problems are so pervasive, the solutions are so complex and costly, and the resources for addressing them are so fragmented that no single sector can achieve large-scale, sustainable results on its own.
It’s hard to read Plough’s 2015 quote above and not feel overwhelmed. Four years after he wrote it, public health practitioners are still in the throes of managing an opioid crisis that has propelled drug overdose deaths to new heights. Preventable chronic illnesses are still widespread. The gun violence epidemic hasn’t abated despite a reenergized movement for gun safety. And all of these public health emergencies disproportionately affect low-income people and people of color.
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Systems that are currently producing poor health outcomes and health inequities can be redesigned to produce health, safety, and equity.
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As public health professionals, we know what we’re capable of accomplishing. We dramatically cut the number of deaths caused by car crashes. We prevented millions of people from becoming cigarette smokers, saving lives and reducing health care costs. Why can’t we make major strides like these to improve health and safety for everyone and achieve health equity? The truth is, there’s a lot we’ve learned about how to create community conditions and norms that can reduce the risk of poor health outcomes. We’ve implemented some of what we’ve learned—but there’s even more that we’ve learned and have yet to implement. That’s why we developed a framework called the System of Prevention.
We believe that a systems approach—one that addresses the interrelationships of multiple factors—may create some of the biggest opportunities to achieve health, safety, and well-being, and reduce health inequities—because systems that are currently producing poor health outcomes and health inequities can be redesigned to produce health, safety, and equity.
Click here to read the full commentary. |
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Elements of a System of Prevention
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Our Health Promotion Practice commentary highlights organizations and communities that are implementing the elements of a System of Prevention:
- Developing a shared vision: In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, residents, parents, youth, community organizers, advocates, elected officials, and public servants came together in late 2016 to grapple with the question of how to prevent violence in their city. They looked at local crime data, reviewed other cities’ plans, identified promising practices, and engaged friends, neighbors, and youth from diverse backgrounds to develop the city’s Blueprint for Peace.
- Elevating community voices and leadership: In Buffalo, New York, the organization PUSH Buffalo leads efforts to improve health by mobilizing community residents to push for healthy and affordable housing, green jobs, and community ownership of land. The PUSH model ensures that residents determine what changes they want to see in their community and then have the skills to advocate for and create those changes.
- Facilitating community partnerships and multi-sector collaboration: California’s Health in All Policies Task Force is a powerful example of intergovernmental partnership. It brings together more than 22 departments, agencies, and offices from across state government to incorporate health and equity considerations into decision-making about policy issues ranging from transportation to labor protections.
The Advancing Health Equity Initiative at the Minnesota Department of Health demonstrates how we can put what we know about systems to work. The Department has approached issues like paid family leave, incarceration, indebtedness, and school discipline with the goal of fundamentally shifting who is involved in the decision-making process by building community power to create change and coordinating multi-sector coalitions; redefining what constitutes actionable “evidence”; changing how grant-making opportunities are structured to facilitate participation of communities experiencing inequities; and recognizing ways to advance health in all policies.
Read more examples of how communities and organizations are implementing elements of a System of Prevention.
prevent [at] preventioninstitute.org (Contact us) if you’re interested in bulk orders of our System of Prevention book (15 books or more) or System of Prevention trainings. |
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