CT assessing the strength of our public health system

Yesterday over one hundred CT public health leaders gathered in Farmington for the first of a two day project developing a detailed assessment of our state’s system to protect the public’s health. The project is being led by DPH using CDC’s National Public Health Performance Standards. Five generous souls from New Jersey are serving as independent, disinterested facilitators and two advisors from the CDC set the context for the assessment. The standards measure the CT system’s strengths and weaknesses against ten essential services. I was assigned to the policy breakout session; our group included a very diverse set of backgrounds with many members who had never met. Many felt that just taking a day to reflect on the system and hearing about it from others’ perspectives was instructive. Voting on the questions was entertaining with a lot of lobbying and peer pressure. I can’t wait for next week.
Ellen Andrews