What I've Learned About Public Health | Austin Burke

I don’t have a background in public health. I only had a basic understanding of it when I accepted my VISTA position on the Public Health Initiatives team at Wichita State’s Center for Community Support and Research (CCSR). I get to serve, protect and improve the public’s health? Sure that sounds fun, sign me up! My mom thinks public health is “like that Ebola stuff”. That’s not wrong, but it’s not all public health does. Through my work in Public Health Accreditation, I learned an amazing amount about public health and the people who do this work every day. 

Public Health Accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) is a measurement of health department performance against a set of nationally recognized, practice-

focused and evidenced-based standards. Accreditation is based off of the three core functions (assurance, assessment and policy development) and 10 essential services of public health (pictured). In order to gain accreditation, a health department must perform and be able to document these services in addition to passing a site review. The goal of accreditation is to improve and protect the health of the public by advancing the quality and performance of tribal, state, local, and territorial public health departments.

The Kansas Accreditation Readiness Project (KARP) is a learning group designed to build health departments capacity to prepare for this accreditation. Every month CCSR facilitates a webinar where the learning group reviews accreditation standards information, peer reviews documents needed for accreditation, and gain insight from PHAB site reviewers.

This project has opened my eyes to all aspects of public health. The first thing I learned was about the comprehensiveness of public health. The standards and measures document for accreditation is 264 pages long, and it doesn’t go into details! There are hundreds of required documents to demonstrate that a health department meets the measures.

I also learned about some of the barriers health departments face on a day-to-day basis. I was surprised to learn that for many counties in Kansas, the number of health department staff can be counted on one hand. Many of these employees have other duties in addition to the public health work they do. It also made me feel great to see that these people are making an effort to get accredited in order to better serve their community. It can seem like a daunting task for a small department, but they are making an effort to better serve their population.

Lastly, I was able to learn that public health is a small world. I met some of the KARP participants at the Kansas Public Health Association conference in Topeka and ran into other public health professionals that I thought I’d never meet. I’m excited to continue work on this project and meet more great public health workers. 

Meet Jessica, one of our interns!

Jessica Hutton joined the Center for Community Support and Research as a Master of Science in Social Administration practicum student in 2014. An honor graduate from Newman University, Jessica earned her Bachelor of Science in psychology in 2013. She is a distance learner through the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University in Wichita, concentrating in community practice for social change.

Jessica has contributed to the efforts of the Trauma-Informed Systems of Care team and the AmeriCorps VISTA program and looks forward to contributing to additional projects in the two years she will continue as a practicum student at CCSR.

Jessica is passionate about systems change and program development, especially related to corrections and other traumatized systems. In her free time, Jessica enjoys reading, writing non-fiction, watching movies and spending time with her teen son and life partner.

New CCSR project supports public health agencies statewide

The Center for Community Support and Research (CCSR) has recently been awarded a two-year contract from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) to build the organizational capacity of health departments. Through this nearly $400,000 contract, CCSR will assist health departments in the implementation of electronic health records and provide training which will increase the number of immunizations health departments provide. If current estimates are correct, there could be a twenty-five percent increase in billing revenue for health departments through the appropriate provision of immunizations.

Financial Planning and Management Skills are among the eight core public health competencies. Nationwide and statewide, local public health officials consistently self-assess their competence with Financial Planning and Management Skills lowest among those eight core skills. Billing is a key component of the financial management process. 

“This effort offers training and tools to sustain local health departments by maximizing access to resources already available in the system, which in turn assures more residents are protected from vaccine-preventable diseases,” says Sonja Armbruster, CCSR director of public health initiatives. 

This project is an implementation phase of a previous planning grant and builds on needs previously identified by local health departments. The CCSR will provide statewide training and create a billing and coding manual for Kansas health departments. In addition, the CCSR will provide more focused assistance to 10 health departments to implement the use of Practice Management Software and/or electronic health records. The CCSR will partner with the Kansas Association of Local Health Departments (KALHD), to select the departments to participate in the project.

The contract originates from a grant the Centers for Disease and Control awarded to the KDHE in September. For more information contact Sonja Armbruster at sonja.armbruster@wichita.edu or 316-978-3988.

Meet Melissa, our new Student Engagement Assistant!

Melissa joined CCSR in October of 2014 as an intern assisting with our student engagement and VISTA projects.

Not long out of college, Melissa graduated from Northern Michigan University (NMU) in May 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education. While at NMU she was a member of the varsity track and field team; participating in the pentathlon and heptathlon. She also has been an avid equestrian her entire life with a special love for rodeo. For the last five years she volunteered with the Great Lakes Rodeo as the queen and court coordinator after passing on her own crown in 2009. When she’s home in Michigan, she competes in barrel racing, team penning, team roping and bull riding with her two geldings, Kenny and Scotty. (Pictured)

Melissa is attending Wichita State University and taking graduate classes in sport management. In her free time she volunteers as a coach for Wichita State University’s track and field team and gives horseback riding lesson to children at a local stable.

Meet Alison Acridge, our social media intern

Alison Acridge, goes by Allie, has joined the CCSR team as the social media person. She is a communication major and is graduating with her Bachelor’s in December. She has always loved social media and is now putting it to use for CCSR.

She loves to travel. She has been to 23 states and three other countries. “I loved South Carolina, I’d love to move there someday. You just kind of fall in love with places when you travel so much,” she said, “I hope to some day see all 50 states.” She went to Nova Scotia with her great-grandma, dad and step-mom over fall break. “This year I went to Cozumel, Mexico, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Maine.” She has applied to the Peace Corps and hopes to travel more after graduation.

In her spare time she loves Netflix, reading, sailing, going to the gym and taking photographs. “I’d love to take a whole class on photography. It just hasn't worked out while in college,” she stated.