Strengthening new hampshire public health infrastructure, workforce, and data systems - the mission of the new hampshire department of health and human services, division of public health services…

Strengthening new hampshire public health infrastructure, workforce, and data systems - the mission of the new hampshire department of health and human services, division of public health services (dphs) is to protect, promote, and improve the health and well-being of all people in new hampshire through leadership, expertise, and partnership. Dphs is committed to ensuring that all people in new hampshire have the opportunity for optimal health and well-being regardless of social and economic factors. This commitment applies to public health's work within communities, as well as within our organization. The workplan proposed for this grant is aligned with CDC's vision of strengthening public health infrastructure, workforce, and data systems in component a's logic model. With this 5-year grant opportunity, NH dphs will utilize funding from the workforce strategy allocation to enhance public health workforce by hiring, retaining, and providing incentives and training for staff; supporting community public health activities; and enhancing partnership and collaboration with NH's 13 regional public health networks, 2 local health departments, academic partners, and community-based organizations across the state. Under the lead of a new workforce director, dphs will review and revise the recommendations from the 2019 dphs strategic plan and develop comprehensive workforce strategies for NH public health. Forty (40) percent of workforce strategy funding will be distributed to local partners allowing dphs to partner with communities for targeted response to urgent public health issues and to build a diverse, inclusive, and culturally competent workforce capable of delivering high-quality services for target populations with greatest need. The foundational capabilities strategy will enable NH dphs to ramp up essential resources for community collaboration and communications. Part of the proposed workplan will provide training tools combined with a health officer program that will benefit local health officers to establish better communication around public health issues relevant to local communities and in targeted geographic areas. Another strategic activity within the foundational capabilities strategy will focus on service delivery improvements through the evaluation of current policies, processes, and surveillance capabilities, particularly for data management and governance across program areas such as infectious disease, chronic disease, environmental health, and behavioral health. Dphs will also continue pursuing public health accreditation. The data modernization strategy will fully support ongoing assessment of data systems for NH's modernization plan, leverage centralized and enterprise information technology solutions, and support opportunities for public health system improvement. These activities align with, but do not duplicate, the activities supported by data modernization funding in the CDC ELC supplemental funding. These new activities focus on ongoing assessment and developing a more comprehensive and accelerated implementation plan. Moreover, they will support partnerships with outcomes that include increased collaborations with IT department and improved capacity to provide technical assistance for data modernization. In the long-term, the strategy will support system interoperability with the statewide comprehensive centralized enterprise data and business intelligence platform. NH dphs will collaborate and coordinate with a wide range of partners, including other state agencies, regional public health networks, academic institutions, local health officers, school nurses, local food coalitions, and others to implement a strategic and data-driven approach for the three strategies: workforce, foundational capabilities, and data modernization. We work closely with partners, internally and externally, and are committed to recognizing and responding to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion within the organizat