Public Health Systems Change
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Funding & InfrastructureCurrent public health funding streams are typically siloed, disease-specific, and unpredictable. These categorical programs do not support infrastructure such as data systems, facilities, and long-term workforce – all of which are critical drivers of success. CALPHO advocates for increased funding and improved funding structures so that each dollar can do more. Learn more about how public health is funded in these CALPHO Issue Briefs:
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Data & Informatics CapacityEffective public health depends on access to community health data and the skills to use it. Currently, essential public health data is often siloed, delayed by years, and less representing of rural communities and some marginalized groups. CALPHO and its partners are exploring ways to close these gaps and seeking new opportunities for accurate community health data in real-time. In addition, we are identifying ways of increasing informatics skills across the public health workforce. In 2023, CALPHO and its partners commissioned a data and informatics capacity assessment - including this list of recommended action steps - and hosted a data summit to lay the groundwork for data modernization in Colorado.
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WorkforceRetaining today’s public health professionals is our highest workforce priority. The pandemic thinned the ranks of local public health workers, but it also demonstrated their resilience, determination, and professionalism. Other priorities include increasing community representativeness in the workforce, improving the education-to-profession pipeline, and expanding mental health supports. Along with our partners at Trailhead Institute, the Colorado Health Institute (CHI), and CDPHE's Office of Public Health Practice, Planning, and Local Partnerships (OPHP), CALPHO conducted a workforce gap and needs assessment in early 2023. Download the final report.
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Colorado's Core Public Health Services
Building on lessons learned from several states that initiated similar efforts, we aligned Colorado's existing Core Public Health Services with the nationally-recognized Foundational Public Health Services framework. The framework defines a public health system that is more equitable, effective, accountable, collaborative, and adaptable through a “minimum package of services” that every local public health agency should provide. This package is suite of skills, programs, and activities that – because our health systems, economies, and communities are all interconnected - must be available everywhere for the system to work anywhere.
The 2008 Public Health Act mandated that each county or district agency must adopt the core services, but provided a loophole for lack of funds. As a result, A 2019 assessment found that the core public health services were only 61% implemented in Colorado. A key goal of Transformation is to reduce this implementation gap. Explore the Core Public Health Services.
Core Public Health Services (CPHS) 2019 Needs Assessment
After updating our Core Public Health Services in 2019, CALPHO and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) contracted with Habile Consulting LLC to develop and conduct a comprehensive needs assessment to 1) Understand current statewide implementation and spending on core public health services, and 2) Estimate the cost to fully deliver core public health services statewide based on the current service delivery paradigm.
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Some Key Findings
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