National Expert Panel on Community Health Promotion

The CDC and Community Health and Program Services (CHAPS) has a long and rich history of supporting innovative community health programs and recognizes that CDC constituents working in health promotion are constantly challenged to access the latest information on cross-cutting chronic disease prevention and health promotion recommendations. To accelerate access to expertise in this area, and to find new ways to support community health promotion at the national level, CHAPS invited an external panel of experts to participate in the National Expert Panel on Community Health Promotion.

The purpose of the meeting was to convene a group of experts external to CDC to develop specific recommendations that would inform the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion’s (NCCDPHP) future efforts in community health promotion. More than 25 experts from academia, state and local health departments, national nonprofits, and community-based organizations participated in the meeting. In addition, each division within NCCDPHP was represented through the establishment of a CDC Ad-Hoc Committee that observed the meeting and provided continual feedback and support.

The recommendations include issues related to community-based participatory research and surveillance, training and capacity building, new approaches for health and wellness, and changes in federal investments. They illustrate the steps needed to broaden the traditional scope of public health and to advance a new vision for improving community health and wellness.

CDC CHAPS Action Steps to Fulfill Recommendations

CHAPS has made a commitment to address four specific recommendations:.

Enhance surveillance systems to go beyond individual risk factors to include community and social determinants of health.

Action Steps:

• Develop a social context module for the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (BRFSS).

Support training and capacity building to ensure that the public health workforce has the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to implement community health promotion approaches.

Action Steps:

• Disseminate lessons learned and translation of research in public health practice.

Create a platform and architecture for virtual community health promotion with capabilities to share knowledge, disseminate evidence-based programs, and communicate with local communities.

Action Steps:

• Develop the Community Health E-Resources Tool.

Shift a measurable part of CDC’s community health promotion programs and funding to targeting living conditions across the lifespan.

Action Steps:

• Develop a workbook and training curriculum for researchers, practitioners, and community organizations to address and evaluate social determinants of health.
   
• Emphasize the socioecologic model for developing community interventions through the new REACH U.S. (Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health Across the U.S.) grant.
   
• Update the Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) project.

What other CDC efforts address the expert panel recommendations?

Champion a focus on wellness that acknowledges the role of mental health, spirituality, and complementary and alternative medicine across the lifespan.

Action Steps:

• Lead a research project to explore the relationship and consequent impact of acculturation and mental health (e.g., stress, depression, health-related quality of life) on chronic diseases among Hispanic/Latino populations.

Support training and capacity building to ensure that the public health workforce has the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to implement community health promotion approaches.

Action Steps:

• Disseminate lessons learned and translation of research in public health practice through programs such as Steps to a HealthierUS and Prevention Research Centers.
   
• Develop dissemination strategies with other divisions such as Adolescent and School Health and the Office on Smoking and Health.
   
• Develop and implement translation schematic via NCCDPHP’s Workgroup on Research Translation.

CDC’s Future Direction in Community Health Promotion

CDC CHAPS has convened a Committee on Community Health Promotion to raise the profile and the importance of community health promotion across CDC Programs . The purposes of this committee include the following:

• Serve as an entity to discuss ideas, new programmatic initiatives, and other activities related specifically to the recommendations of the expert panel and related community health promotion activities.
   
• Prioritize the expert panel recommendations and bring back actionable steps related to the prioritized recommendations.
   
• Serve as a communication bridge and provide periodic updates to the center on ongoing and newly developed activities, tools, products, and partnerships related to the expert panel recommendations.

Page last reviewed: August 26, 2008
Page last modified: August 26, 2008
Content source: Division of Adult and Community Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion