Local Health Departments

Who is involved in practicing public health at the local level? What are their responsibilities? Most communities have a government-run local health department with specific duties that are mandated. To be effective, these departments must work in partnership with other organizations.

Prepare for the Discussion by reviewing descriptions of what a local public health departments should do. Then select one county in your state and create a list of five central community partners or stakeholders that are (or should be) components of that county’s public health system. Make sure to include nongovernmental entities.
Provide an operational definition for what a local health department is supposed to do.

Briefly identify five community partners or stakeholders that you think are central (or should be) components of your selected county’s public health system. These must include nongovernmental entities.
(Delaware) New Castle County
Article: Leischow, S., & Milstein, B. (2006).Systems thinking and modeling for public health practice. American Journal ofPublic Health, 96(3), 403 – 405.
Many public health issues can only be understood accurately by examining the dynamic interactions of various components of a system. Conventional kinds of problem framing and action planning rarely take into consideration the complexities of systems. This article discusses public health in the context of systems thinking. This approach focuses on connections among different components and the implications of their interactions, and it requires transdisciplinary thinking as well as active involvement of stakeholders.

Article: Trochim, W., Cabrera, D., Milstein, B., Gallagher, R., & Leischow, S. (2006). Practical challenges of systems thinking and modeling in public health.American Journal of Public Health, 96(3), 538 – 546.

Although the value of systems thinking in public health is increasingly being acknowledged, there are many practical challenges to its effective implementation. Using concept mapping, a systems-based methodology, the authors identified eight categories of challenge and the dynamic interactions among them. They offer rules to address challenges and improve the organization of systems that protect the public’s health.