Strengthening U.S. Public health infrastructure, workforce, and data systems - the florida department of health in hillsborough county is the public health agency that serves the city of tampa's, over…

Strengthening U.S. Public health infrastructure, workforce, and data systems - the florida department of health in hillsborough county is the public health agency that serves the city of tampa's, over 400,000 diverse citizens and the adjoining municipalities. The agency has been phab-accredited since may of 2016 and continues to meet or exceed all accreditation criteria. Ongoing community health assessments and county health status data indicate that several public health issues remain a challenge in this region. Behavioral health, access to care, chronic and infectious diseases, maternal child health issues, emerging novel diseases and significant health disparities reflect the need for continued vigilance, investigation and data driven intervention efforts by the agency and its public health partners. However, the local agency has struggled to meet these challenges, particularly during and following the early days of the covid-19 pandemic. This struggle also involves increased staff vacancies, increased staff turnover and recruitment efforts that have been for the most part unsuccessful. Further, public health staff moral and satisfaction as well as our engagement with partners and stakeholders have been damaged due to the pandemic. All these factors have impacted our efficiency and ultimately health outcomes in our city and county. This CDC grant will assist the health department in taking an evidence-driven, multipronged, systems-based approach to resolving problems in the complex environment in which we must now meet the public health needs of our community. To retain staff, we will focus on staff resilience, staff training and providing opportunities for professional and personal growth. Through initiatives with partners, and varied stakeholders we will implement several projects that will make the local public health agency a great employer to work for and attractive to future public health professionals, enhancing our recruitment efforts. Through this grant, a different approach will be taken to enhance and improve communication with the community. Partners and citizens will be fully engaged in cocreating and informing how we best communicate with the citizens that we serve. Anticipated outcomes include improvements of our systems and processes for training, retaining, and recruiting staff, a more well-trained public health workforce, a dynamic community communication plan, and equitable policies on the internal and community level. The long-term improvements include better health outcomes, improving health equity and reducing health disparities. This proposal addresses strategies A1 and A2 for our agency and county. We will work in concert with the florida department of health and other funded counties to assure a cohesive approach to workforce development in florida.