COVID support, behavioral health among focus areas for new public health institute
Montana’s first independent public health institute is officially up and running with projects aimed at strengthening the state’s public health system by focusing on its rural, frontier and tribal communities and by supporting sound health policy and funding.
With the forming of the Montana Public Health Institute, the state has now joined the ranks of more than 30 other states that also boast independent public health institutes. The entities are supported by the National Network of Public Health Institutes, which seeks to improve public health structures, systems and outcomes on a national scale.
The new organization hired former Flathead County Public Health Officer Hillary Hanson as its first official employee in July 2020. She is serving as the nonprofit's Chief Operating Officer.
The new resource came to fruition amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — an event that has put on display just how vital the nation’s public health systems are. In rural states especially, it is public health departments that have spearheaded various prevention and mitigation efforts throughout the pandemic with guidance from health leaders and organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The decision to create the new institute emerged from a feasibility study funded by the Montana Healthcare Foundation.
The study, which was published in 2019, identified public health institute services not currently provided by other organizations in Montana and offered recommendations for improvement.
It concluded that an independent public health institute could “fill a critical need in building partnerships to address health-related needs in Montana and strengthen Montana’s largely rural public health system.”
The Institute was incorporated as a Montana nonprofit in April 2020, shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic reached the state. Nearly one year after its founding, Hanson said the design and vision behind the institute has been established and its first projects have officially been set into motion — undertakings that will be supported by a $1.85 million grant from the Montana Healthcare Foundation, to be used over four years.
“I am thrilled that the Montana Public Health Institute is now part of our growing network of dedicated professionals working to improve the public’s health across the country, especially in the rural, frontier and tribal communities,” said Vincent Lafronza, president and CEO of the National Network of Public Health Institutes.
MONTANA PUBLIC Health Institute, according to a news release, has honed in on addressing several major challenges, including the state’s increased need for behavioral health services, an issue that has long plagued Montana, but has been exacerbated over the past year as many have struggled with increased isolation, job loss, food insecurities and other challenges that have been amplified by the pandemic.
Among other measures, the organization is developing marketing materials for counseling services available to those impacted by COVID-19 and is working to provide programmatic support to communities working in order to strengthen local and statewide behavioral health crisis systems.
Aside from behavioral health, the Institute is offering COVID-19-related technical assistance to local and tribal health departments. According to MTPHI’s website, a team is providing a wide variety of services on this front, including help with public information and communications, the adoption of COVID-19-related technology, the use of data and metrics and documents to support communities and health department operations during the pandemic.
The organization pinpointed some of these needs after collaborating with the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services on a study last summer that was aimed at better understanding local and tribal response to COVID-19 in Montana and how those responses can be more deeply supported by statewide public health organizations.
THE STUDY, which compiled data and interview material from local public health officials throughout the state, led to the creation of a guide called “A Plan to Address Local and Tribal Public Health System Needs.”
Those needs, according to the plan and to other information involving tribal and local health departments’ use of COVID-19 relief funding, are extensive. They include additional staff to keep up with pandemic response, guidance when addressing specific populations and topics, such as seniors and behavioral health concerns, and advanced consultation and joint decision-making with state officials, among many others.
The plan, written in collaboration with We Are Montana, the Montana Association of Public Health Officials and others, also outlines strategies for tackling those needs, some of which have been looped into the institute’s current statewide initiatives.
Finally, included on the organization’s list of future initiatives is to become a trusted source of information to engage and educate elected officials and policymakers about public health issues and topics in Montana.
The organization’s website already provides a document outlining legislation that has the potential to impact state and local public health authorities.
House Bill 121 and Senate Bill 108 are included in the document. The two measures are very similar and essentially aim to revise laws related to local boards of health and health officers by requiring that certain rules, regulations and fees be proposed by a local board of health and adopted by the governing body. This will allow a governing body, such as county commissioners, to amend a directive, mandate, or order given by a local board of health during a time of emergency, such as the pandemic.
Reporter Kianna Gardner may be reached at 758-4407 or kgardner@dailyinterlake.com