Local Public Health Training Institute Advisory Council Meeting Minutes January 22, 2007

Meeting participants: Nancy Allen, Shrewsbury BOH Kathy Atkinson, MDPH (by phone) Dawn Baxter, PSI Marcia Benes, MAHB Brad Cohen, DelValle Institute (by phone) Sandy Collins, MAPHN Steve Fleming, MDPH Kathleen Gilmore, MDPH Paul Halfmann, MDPH Peg Harrington, MDPH Glynnis LaRosa, MDPH (by phone) Richard Lehan, DEP (by phone) Kathleen MacVarish, BU School of Public Health Paul Morse, University of Massachusetts Lowell Donna Moultrup, MHOA Priscilla Neves, MDPH Gilbert Nick, Harvard School of Public Health (by phone) Amy Rosenstein, PSI Charlotte Stepanian, MAPHN Cheryl Sbarra, MAHB

Meeting starting time: 12:00 p.m.

I. Foundations course Amy gave an update on the Foundations course. The evaluation of the Fall 2006 course offering has been completed. It showed a high level of satisfaction with course content, and supported the need to look for alternative ways to offer the course that require participants to take less time away from the office.

Amy and Kathleen MacVarish are working on converting the course to include a combination of classroom training and sessions on Interwise. The course in this new format should be ready to pilot in late Spring 2007. There was some discussion about the best location for the training. While there was some interest in offering the course in the Greater Boston area, several Advisory Council members thought that it would be preferable to offer it in a location outside of Boston, due to issues such as parking and traffic. There was also some discussion about charging a fee for course participants to help defray some of the course costs, such as the manual. The Advisory Council thought that a fee of $50 per participant would be reasonable, especially if scholarships are available for people who need them. Advisory Council members agreed that it would be useful to get a sense of who from their organizations would be interested in taking the

1 course in the Spring, so an appropriate location can be identified. Several Advisory Council members had specific suggestions for locations, which Amy will look into.

Next Steps: Amy will send out a summary of the Foundations course to Advisory Council members who will send it to members in their organization to get a sense of people who may be interested in attending. Council members should send Amy information on people who are interested by February 9.

II. Process for review of the work of the Curriculum sub-committee & discussion of next steps

Amy gave an update on the competency model. The model is ready for review and feedback both from the Advisory Council and from other local public health practitioners. It was sent to Advisory Council members for review in December and only limited feedback was provided. Kathleen Gilmore reminded the Advisory Council that this is an important project that requires feedback, and asked for Council member’s response. The next step in this process is to get Advisory Council member feedback and to simultaneously send it to practitioners from the organizations that Council members represent, to ask for their review.

There was also discussion about the training levels that should be used in the competency materials. The “Guidelines for Developing Competency-based Emergency Preparedness Trainings” identify three training levels: Awareness, Performance, and Management/Planning. The Council on Linkages materials use three different levels: Awareness, Knowledgeable and Proficient. The Council discussed levels that should be used in the Local Public Health Competency model, with the goals of being consistent with terminology being use in Massachusetts and also fitting this model most effectively. The Council agreed that two levels should be used: Awareness and Performance level. The management level in the “Guidelines” is addressed as a discipline that is part of the Competency model. Follow-up:  Materials will be modified to reflect the two training levels.  Amy will resend the competency materials to the Advisory Council members, who are asked to find at least 3 reviewers in their respective organizations. Reviewers are asked to provide feedback on the materials to Amy by February 16. In order to track the review process, Council members are asked to let Amy know who the reviewers will be for each organization.

III. Update on “Flu Care at Home” project Kathleen, Dawn and Amy gave an updated on the Flu Care at Home project. Four focus groups have been conducted and a focus group report is being drafted. The Flu Care at Home workgroup has been meeting regularly. The workgroup includes MDPH staff, several local public health representatives, and Institute staff. The workgroup is currently working on developing training content. The focus of the training efforts is the general public, with a “train the trainer” for local public health on this content to help prepare them to work in their communities. The content is expected to be ready for review in early March. An Advisory Council member asked that the Advisory Council members have the opportunity to review training content.

2 There was some discussion about funding for this project. The funding for the focus groups and the Train the trainer is coming from the Institute budget. MDPH has been able to secure some additional funding has been secured for other parts of this campaign, and additional funding sources are being pursued.

IV. Training Priorities The Advisory Council reviewed an updated list of training needs that were identified in meetings that the Institute has conducted with Regional Coalition staff. There was some discussion about training related local public health’s role in setting up and running shelters during emergencies. This was a need that was identified by many regional coalitions. There are discussions between MEMA and MDPH on this issue, and it was agreed that this is not a training topic that the Institute should pursue at this time.

In discussing the trainings on the topic on the list, it was determined that trainings already exist on many of these topics. MDPH will collect more information about these topics and share them with the Institute. The Institute can have a role in helping to promote some of these training. In addition, it would be helpful to review local health deliverables for this year to see if there are any training needs that should be addressed. It was also suggested that the Institute should send out a summary to the regional coalitions to let them know about trainings that exist related to areas that they identified a need. This information can also be helpful to the associations when they are picking out topics for conferences.

An area of concern for the coalitions is training for MRCs. There is some on-line training in development for MRCs, and there may be a way that this can be broadened for statewide use. There was some discussion about what the Institute’s role is for training MRCs. There are some other efforts underway to train MRCs. While the Institute’s primary role is local public health, it was agreed that we should make the effort to make our materials available and useful to MRCs when possible.

Next Steps: Amy and Dawn will meet with the representatives from the Center for Emergency Preparedness to discuss training needs. Kathy Atkinson will send information to Amy about trainings that already exist. At the next Institute meeting, the Institute will provide a summary of trainings that already exist, look at what our role should be to promote them, and look at unmet needs.

The question was raised about whether the risk communications exercise should become an institutionalized training that the Institute offers each year. The final session of the initial course offering has been completed and the evaluation report is currently being drafted. It will be shared with the Advisory Council to help determine whether this should be offered regularly or if there are changes that should be made either to the training level, or in the way that it is offered to make it effective with larger groups of participants.

3 IV. Institute website Amy announced the emergency preparedness competency materials are now on the Institute website and the Institute is preparing to do a mailing of a fact sheet about the competencies to the Local Boards of Health.

There was some discussion about the process for including on-line courses on the website. The tool that the Institute developed to evaluate an on-line course is being used to evaluate an on-line training about behavioral health issues in emergencies. Updates are being made to the evaluation tool as it is being used for the first time. There is also interest in finding a way to include feedback from people who taken the training on how useful it was to them. Several on-line courses were identified by Advisory Council members, which will be reviewed.

V. Next meeting and next steps Next meeting: March 19 at Shrewsbury Town Hall

Meeting adjournment time: 2:00 p.m.

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