Secretary's Council on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives for 2010

One of the things--and I will not try to summarize the day's recommendations, but I do want to--just in sort of wrapping up, mention--Earl had alluded to this earlier--I think this has been an enormously productive day with a lot of really good ideas. One of the really important issues for us in the Department, I think, is sustaining the interest and involvement of the leadership, because I think, as we noted, there have been ongoing meetings at staff level, and these kinds of ideas and thoughts and connections have not been made. We really just need to engage you all in your ongoing commitment to really staying involved in this process as we try to act on some of the recommendations that have been going on.

We talked about also trying to summarize this day and use it to keep this iterative process going with this group, because obviously we can't impose on people to get you all together a lot, but we want to do that a little bit. I had asked Earl earlier to say what he thought we might do in terms of next steps, so we realize this is not an endpoint. It's really just a beginning in this process.

DR. FOX: I think one of the things we want to do is, we want to redraft the ideas for the conceptual framework and the context for 2010, based on some of the comments that you've given us and recirculate that to this group and ask you to give us comments pro or con. I'm thinking, Debbie, there are some areas that we actually didn't get around to discussing or persons that we wanted some feedback on. Maybe we can just send those questions, trying to do it in a fairly simplistic form so it doesn't take a lot of time, but ask you to give feedback on those items. I think that's something we can do.

The second is, rather than issue a simultaneous call, or almost a back to back call for comments on the context or the framework of 2010 and the objectives, we might, maybe, separate them a little bit more temporally and ask for the questions on the framework first through a public call and try to assimilate those, and then turn around and ask for objectives after that, and really separate them in a way so we have enough time to assimilate them and regroup. I think that would be very helpful, because we obviously will have a lot of good comments we need to consider.

Then the other is, we probably need to continue with some additional outside input through, maybe, focus groups with some more community leaders, people out in the public in general, and consumers of health care and mental health services. That's another potential strategy that I think we can incorporate.

So, the final thing is--going back to, I think, what Susan may have suggested of that diagram, the goals and this thing--we had the objectives and the goals and then the priority areas under that, and maybe coming back and trying to reconceptualize it in a way so we could show it in a little different fashion, and submit that back to you and see how that strikes you.

I think any other comments you have that you want to share will be helpful because, really, what we were asking for and want is feedback, to try to think through this, because, obviously, once we get well into it and the thing gets set, it's going to be hard to go back and modify it. I think we're not wed to any one way. I think what we said early on is, everything is on the table, but having said that, we don't want to change anything, unless there's a really good reason to do that and we can show that we're better off by changing it. When I took over once, I had a computer system in which we had programmed all of our regional boundaries. And I changed the regional boundaries, and it cost us $500,000 just for reprogramming. It's kind of like the issue of cost and unintended consequences. So, we don't want to change the structure, unless there's a reason to change it, but if there's a reason to change it, if it's valid, we will change it. So we just need your input on that.

DR. BOUFFORD: I also think a lot of the discussion today has been very much about, in a sense, adjunct items that could be helpful. We talked about the implementation strategies. We talked about helping people think through how to use the document, if it's generated, and then, also, this question of priorities and what they are really and, are we prepared to go out there as the Federal government and help people think about how to set priorities within their own framework? So I think a lot of it is not an either-or? It's a sort of both-and question, a lot more challenging.

DR. FOX: I might say also that we have talked about--over the next year--trying to go after a number of groups and meet with those groups, get feedback from those specific groups, and then, probably at some point, take the objectives on the road, much like we've done with the last iteration.

DR. BOUFFORD: All right. So I think what we will plan to do, and people should expect this, is to keep this group at the senior level really engaged in taking a look at the report and the ideas, also the redrafting of the structure document, which is really important, and ask you to really be responsive there. We will stay open to getting us back together again. I think we had only forced you to sign on for once a year, but I think it's clear that it may be prudent, especially at the front end, to get this group together again somewhat more often until this is launched and then maybe take a break in the middle and come back again towards the end as the results are coming in.

So, thank you all very much for a very, very exciting day. We look forward to just the beginning of a process.

[Whereupon at 4:29 p.m., the meeting was adjourned.]

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