Essential Service 8 - Assure Workforce Competence

Community Health Institute/JSI • 501 South Street, 2nd Floor • Bow, NH 03304 • P:603-573-3300 • F:603-573-3301
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Essential Service 8 - Assure Workforce Competence

Assure a competent public and personal health care workforce

Logistics and Capacity Building of HIV Prevention & Care Planning

Community Health Institute/JSI (CHI/JSI) provided logistical support and associated technical assistance to the New Hampshire HIV Community Planning Group (CPG). CHI/JSI supported the provision and coordination of technical assistance and capacity building to assist HIV Prevention and Care Service Providers in meeting the goals of the HIV Comprehensive Plan. Additionally, CHI/JSI provided logistical support to an average of 78 meetings per year and coordinated three annual CPG Retreats for the NH Division of Public Health Services STD/HIV Prevention Section. Other duties included providing contact hours for the Fundamentals/PCRS courses, conducting and compiling the CPG membership survey results through the use of a subcontractor, developing and maintaining a NH HIV CPG website, and assisting the CPG Steering and Care Committees with editing, reviewing and updating the NH HIV Resource Guide.

Management of the Family Planning Training Centers

Community Health Institute/JSI (CHI/JSI) manages the Regional Training and Technical Assistance Centers for Family Planning in New England and the six-state Rocky Mountain area. Together, the two Centers annually serve over 1,400 paid and voluntary staff of federally funded (Title X) family planning projects. CHI/JSI trainings focus on reproductive health and HIV/AIDS clinical, managerial, counseling, and health education topics. Trainings also have a significant focus on male involvement, adolescent health, and cultural competency, and also address health disparities. The training and technical assistance (TA) activities are designed to update, improve, and maintain a high level of knowledge and job-specific and organizational skills. CHI/JSI has broadened the traditional training agenda to include distance learning via communication technologies, such as audio-conferencing, teleconferencing, and web-based training technologies to cost-effectively reach family planning staff at diverse and geographically scattered sites.

HIV Prevention Trainings for Underserved Women

Community Health Institute/JSI (CHI/JSI) conducted trainings for Title X family planning grantee agencies and home visiting providers in Region I (New England), under collaboration with the Region I Family Planning Training Center, to help providers better reach underserved women through this CDC-funded project. Trainings helped providers to integrate HIV and reproductive health issues within their client interventions to empower them to make healthy decisions. HIV training topics included: HIV risk assessment skills; substance use/HIV linkages; basic and advanced HIV updates; living with HIV/AIDS; male involvement; reproductive health issues; sexuality and behavior; client-centered counseling; and cultural competency. CHI/JSI developed these trainings through discussions, needs assessments and evaluations of the grantee agencies. CHI/JSI worked to meet agency needs through tailored training delivered as a comprehensive series to each grantee.

Public Health Emergency Preparedness Training Program

Community Health Institute/JSI (CHI/JSI) worked with the NH Department of Health and Human Services and New Hampshire Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM) in providing training to public health emergency planning partners in New Hampshire's All Health Hazards Planning Regions (AHHRs). These regional planning groups are charged with developing Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Plans and with public health emergency response. CHI developed trainings on a variety of topics for a wide range of audiences, with Continuing Education Units (CEUs) provided as appropriate. CHI/JSI conducted a training needs assessment to inform the development of skills-based training programs that fit into the ongoing planning work of the AHHRs. Among the training programs developed and/or implemented as a result of the assessment included continuity of operations planning for facilities serving functional-needs populations, crisis and emergency risk communications procedures for local public health responders, local roles and responsibilities in isolation and quarantine implementation, the Homeland Security Exercise Evaluation Program (HSEEP) Training Programs, and a train-the-trainer course for regional planners to orient municipal officials to public health emergency plans. Trainings were conducted at the regional level, on a multi-regional basis, and at professional meetings and conferences. All trainings were promoted and managed using the TRAIN system. Also as a part of this project, CHI/JSI developed exercise scenarios, facilitator guidelines, an after-action report template and accompanying presentations, participant manuals, and evaluator guidance to encourage Homeland Security Exercise Evaluation Program (HSEEP) compliant implementation of the exercises throughout the state. CHI/JSI incorporated a quality assurance process by using the initial training as a pilot, and adapting training curricula and methods as necessary based on feedback from participant evaluations.

Maternal Tobacco Free Training and Technical Assistance for the Queen City

Community Health Institute/JSI (CHI/JSI) has partnered with Elliot Health System of Manchester, New Hampshire, to improve the health of women and their babies by reducing maternal smoking. The CHI/JSI provided training, technical assistance and tools to equip the health and human service providers of Elliot Health System with the necessary skills and techniques to engage patients in a brief intervention about their tobacco use. The CHI/JSI worked with the administrative staff to reinforce an integrated office-based system of care and tobacco treatment as a standard of care.

Technical Assistance and Training of Women of Reproductive Age About Smoking Cessation

Community Health Institute/JSI (CHI/JSI) brought evidence-based tobacco treatment training, tools and technical assistance to 50 publicly and privately funded practice sites in New Hampshire that serve low-income and low-literacy women of reproductive age, under contract with the New Hampshire Department of Health & Human Services (NH DHHS), Office of Community and Public Health (OCPH), and Tobacco Prevention and Control Program (TPCP). The sessions included information and tools to equip clinical providers to engage in a brief, evidence-based intervention to assess a smoker's readiness to quit and to provide appropriate information, motivation, and referral for treatment. Also covered were current FDA guidelines and recommendations for pharmacotherapy dosing, referral information on area tobacco treatment resources, along with office tools and systems to identify and document the intervention.

Curriculum Development and Training to Promote Health and Safety in Child Care Centers

Community Health Institute/JSI (CHI/JSI) facilitated a partnership between the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Family Services, Children, Youth and Families, Child Development Bureau, and the Office of Community and Public Health, Bureau of Maternal and Child Health. CHI/JSI provided a nurse to: develop a statewide Health & Safety Curriculum to be used to train child care providers in best practices; develop curriculum kits; and implement the curriculum in collaboration with existing educational systems for child care providers. In addition, CHI/JSI worked in conjunction with community-based providers throughout the state to create a network of pediatric consultants to consult with child caring environments regarding health and safety issues.

Training and Technical Assistance of Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Data Collection and Reporting

Community Health Institute/JSI (CHI/JSI) is providing training and technical assistance (TA) to 62 state and territorial health departments on the collection and reporting of Public Health Emergency Preparedness data for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Coordination Office of Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response/Division of State and Local Readiness (COTPER/DSLR). Preparedness data for program evaluation and monitoring activities is aimed at program planning, management and improvement. CHI/JSI is developing a training program for cooperative agreement grantees to enable them to continuously improve their capabilities and capacities and to accurately report on their progress and providing technical assistance and training to CDC and contracted staff so they can provide assistance to grantees in support of program monitoring and improvement.

Continuing Education Program for Oral Health Providers Regarding Tobacco Use

Community Health Institute/JSI (CHI/JSI) increased the capacity of oral health providers to effectively intervene with their patients who use tobacco, under contract with the Endowment for Health. Partnering with the New Hampshire Dental Hygienists’ Association, New Hampshire Dental Society, Northeast Delta Dental, New Hampshire Tobacco Prevention and Control Program and New Hampshire Technical Institute, CHI/JSI developed a continuing education program to teach providers the most contemporary and effective methods to assist patients who use tobacco and link them with state-of-the-art resources. The training and materials were developed after a year of formative research to assess the attitudes, behaviors and beliefs that oral health providers possess regarding their patients who use tobacco and their willingness to engage patients.

Healthy Child Care Technical Assistance

Community Health Institute/JSI (CHI/JSI), through a federal grant with the NH Office of Community and Public Health, assisted in building a system of health and social support services in early child care development environments. CHI/JSI worked with child health consultants in Title XX Child Care Centers providing technical assistance and professional development opportunities on site and at two conferences. The training addressed topics related to child and mental health, safety and injury prevention, data collection and provided opportunity to network. CHI/JSI facilitated a process to compare NH child care regulations to national standards and proposed revisions. Lastly, CHI/JSI worked with NH Healthy Kids to developed new outreach strategies to increase enrollment in Healthy Kids Gold and Silver and assess improvements in the health status of children in Title XX centers and their access to services.