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Emerging Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and produce early results that are consistent with the objectives of the activities and thus indicate effectiveness.
RELEASE DATE:
Summary Report/Recommendations
This document provides guidance on conducting after-action reviews (AARs) of the public health response to COVID-19. It offers a methodological approach that combines interactive workshops and interviews and includes practical implementation tools. The document builds upon previous ECDC guidance and aims to support countries in designing AARs for the response to COVID-19. AARs help review actions taken during a public health event, identify best practices and areas for improvement, and contribute to continuous quality improvement in emergency preparedness and response planning. The guidance is adaptable for national and sub-national contexts and targets public health experts from EU/EEA Member States, EU candidate and potential candidate countries, and European Neighbourhood Policy countries.
Promising Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities, and are suitable for adaptation by other communities.
RELEASE DATE:
Peer Review Study
The article stresses the importance of leveraging the Medical Reserve Corps when responding to pandemics and other mass public health events. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these community volunteers allowed local public health agencies to quickly scale to respond to this crisis.
Promising Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities, and are suitable for adaptation by other communities.
RELEASE DATE:
Peer Review Study
This analysis summarizes responses from the 2021 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey to gain insight into governmental public health workers’ needs and experiences. Public health workers continue to be on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic and recruiting and retaining workers is an important element of an effective emergency response. Pride in public health and teamwork were identified as positive aspects of the job, while burnout and unappreciation were cited as negative aspects.
Promising Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities, and are suitable for adaptation by other communities.
RELEASE DATE:
Peer Review Study
Challenges related to workforce capacity have existed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. These shortages are especially acute and problematic for settings with high disease burdens such as nursing facilities. Strategies for expanding public health capacity within nursing homes and more broadly include increased training and retention of experienced staff.
Emerging Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and produce early results that are consistent with the objectives of the activities and thus indicate effectiveness.
RELEASE DATE:
Summary Report/Recommendations
This report outlines a framework for supporting people with long COVID through increased public awareness, accommodations within the school and workplace, research, and advocacy. It emphasizes a person-centered approach to designing this framework and understanding the lived experiences of people with long COVID. As such, recommendations focus on areas identified to be of greatest importance to the community, rather than clinical researchers.
Emerging Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and produce early results that are consistent with the objectives of the activities and thus indicate effectiveness.
RELEASE DATE:
Peer Review Study
This environmental scan of the New Orleans Health Department identified barriers to equity within the department and proposed solutions to build capacity to increase health equity. Specific suggestions included partnering with community members/organizations (and allowing them to lead some efforts), using community organizing approaches, partnering across sectors, focusing on equity in hiring and wages, diversifying the workforce, and ensuring diversity when convening groups.
Promising Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities, and are suitable for adaptation by other communities.
RELEASE DATE:
Peer Review Study
The article presents strategies of how Durham County Department of Public Health operationalized equity into multiple phases of its COVID-19 response through infrastructure changes and how to apply these methods to future public health emergencies to better serve vulnerable populations. This response relied upon robust data collection of demographic data to identify inequities. Infrastructure changes included standing up multiple COVID-19 Task Forces (Homeless, Community, Food Security, African American) and Strike Teams (Long-Term Care Facility, Clusters) targeting vulnerable populations; placing testing sites in targeted locations; collaborating with multisector and community partners for feedback; and providing Health Ambassadors for in-person dissemination of COVID-19 information. The paper reviews results from these interventions and lessons learned.
Promising Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities, and are suitable for adaptation by other communities.
RELEASE DATE:
Peer Review Study
This study discusses recommendations from the Public Health 3.0 concept to strengthen public health systems globally to promote and health and ensure health equity. These include embracing the role of chief health strategists, engaging community stakeholders, achieving public health accreditation, improving data for decision making, and enhancing funding for public health systems.
Emerging Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and produce early results that are consistent with the objectives of the activities and thus indicate effectiveness.
RELEASE DATE:
Summary Report/Recommendations
This report recommends changing work policies to support employee wellness at public health agencies. Public health infrastructure is often hard to maintain due to high turnover and burnout, especially during times of crisis like COVID-19. Work policies such as flexible schedules and remote work have been shown to increase employee well-being. It also recommends the establishment of cross-jurisdictional sharing arrangements to share key staff between public health departments, e.g., epidemiologists. This can serve as a solution to chronic underfunding of public health agencies at the federal level.
Best Practices that show evidence of effectiveness in improving public health outcomes when implemented in multiple real-life settings, as indicated by achievement of aims consistent with the objectives of the activities.
RELEASE DATE:
Summary Report/Recommendations
This article describes strategies to embed equity into the standard operations of the health department. These include incorporating equity-focused language into written documents like strategic plans and mission statements; utilizing an organizational evaluation toolkit (e.g. Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative Organizational Self-Assessment Toolkit) to find opportunities to improve equity focus of public health strategy; and establishing organization-wide equity-focused work groups to ensure the continued focus on health equity in future interventions.