{"id":5458,"date":"2019-11-12T17:51:21","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T22:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/nephtc\/?p=5458"},"modified":"2025-04-27T18:45:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T22:45:17","slug":"learning-can-help-public-health-cross-silos-in-the-opioid-epidemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/nephtc\/2019\/11\/12\/learning-can-help-public-health-cross-silos-in-the-opioid-epidemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning Can Help Public Health Cross Silos in the Opioid Epidemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Public Health Training Centers like nothing better than to see learning take hold and actualized in the real world of public health, particularly on an important issue like the Opioid Epidemic.<\/p>\n

In this post, NEPHTC is celebrating work done by a public health team in Kansas, that started with a learning program developed by NEPHTC and Systems Thinking expert Julia Ross for the Vermont Department of Health.\u00a0 Learning is like that, it grows, it morphs, and can be passed along for use and re use by different funders and different teams.\u00a0 The team leaders were Cristi Cain, Director, Local Public Health Program, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and Amber Dean, Project Manager, Public Health Initiatives, Community Engagement Institute, Wichita State University.<\/p>\n

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NNPHI replicated the NEPHTC Systems Thinking Training Program with Coaching at the PHIT training in June 2019.\u00a0 One of the teams who attended that training was made up of members from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Wichita State University.\u00a0 The team decided to use Systems Thinking Coaching to address the issue of having no roadmap for local health departments to address behavioral health.<\/p>\n

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See their description of the issue and the systems thinking work they did to describe the underlying causes here:<\/p>\n

Issue Selected <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In Kansas, nearly half of the 100 local health departments prioritized behavioral health during community planning processes. Unfortunately, there is no current roadmap about what to do next. As a result, the majority of local health departments that have prioritized behavioral health are not achieving their stated goals. This is the issue this team chose to focus on. Their vision is it to have all of their local health departments seamlessly integrate behavioral health services, including cross referral capabilities, and provide ease of access for all clients.<\/span><\/p>\n

Underlying Causes <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Using a systems thinking approach, the team identified a number of underlying causes which are contributing to this issue remaining in place.<\/span><\/p>\n