Planning and Capacity Building Activities
| Grantee: | Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services |
|---|---|
| Contact: | Marjean Heisler Magraw, MPH |
| Telephone: | 406-444-4871 |
| E-mail: | mmagraw@mt.gov |
| Address: | Department of Public Health & Human Services 1400 Broadway, Cogswell Building, Rm. C-314 Helena, MT 59620-2951 |
| Web site: | http://www.dphhs.mt.gov/epht/ [external link] |
| Funded Since: | September 30, 2002 |
| Funded Program: | National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, Part A |
Program Description:
The initial goal of the Montana Environmental Public Health Surveillance System (EPHSS) Program is to establish epidemiologic and program capacity for an EPHSS within Montana. This will allow the Montana EPHSS Program to collaborate with CDC, other state and federal partners, and the Centers of Excellence toward a statewide and national environmental public health tracking network. These activities are intended to facilitate a transformation from reactive health effect-, exposure-, and hazard-specific surveillance systems, to an integrated and standardized tracking (surveillance) network.
To accomplish these goals, Montana is:
- Completing a preliminary inventory of its databases that address
hazards, exposures, and chronic diseases
- Establishing criteria to identify priority conditions for
inclusion in an environmental public health surveillance system
program
- Soliciting input from citizens at public forums in the state
- Completing a report that includes recommendations in three scientific and policy areas, including (1) standardizing databases addressing health effects, exposures, and hazards; (2) improving environmental epidemiology and program capacity within the Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS); and (3) enhancing surveillance capacity to address priority health conditions in Montana.
Montana is funded as a Part A state to conduct planning and capacity building for Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT). Priority environmental health concerns were assessed in Montana through statewide surveys, and community assessments. Montana conducted a pilot project in collaboration with the University of Montana to link hospital data on respiratory and cardiovascular disease with air quality monitoring data. This initial data linkage project was conducted to assess the feasibility of linking health and environmental data. An association was found between asthma and increases in PM 2.5 levels.
The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services has built a relationship with many important partners. The Department of Environmental Quality is working to enhance the collection of environmental data, and the Natural Resource Information System At Montana State Library has contributed GIS expertise to the EPHT program. Other partners include Montana State University who conducted a statewide survey on environmental health issues and is summarizing statewide indoor radon data. The Montana Bureau of Mines at Montana Tech and the USGS office in Montana have collaborated on the mapping of environmental health hazard information.
A Statewide EPHT Advisory Group held a strategic planning session in February 2005. The 2-day session resulted in the development of a logic model that defines key EPHT goals for the next five years in Montana. Montana EPHT is also working with county and tribal health departments to provide technical assistance and training to conduct community environmental health assessments. Fifteen local sites have participated to date and several follow-up projects have resulted that are allowing local health departments to proactively address priority concerns.
Montana brings many strengths to the development of an EPHSS Program, including (1) a well established partnership between the Montana DPHHS and the Department of Environmental Quality; (2) ongoing collaborations among MDPHHS and Montana universities; (3) strong experience in addressing site-specific environmental health problems; (4) effective collaborations between MDPHHS and federal entities such as the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the Environmental Protection Agency; and (5) an engaged and concerned population.
