Carson City, Washoe County health agencies receive grants to explore partnership
Health agencies in Carson City and Washoe County have each received a $125,000 two-year grant that will be used to explore ways to partner, otherwise known as "cross-jurisdictional sharing."
The Carson City Health and Human Services and Washoe County Health District are recipients of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grants that will aid in the mission of protecting and promoting health in both counties, according to a news release.
Carson City Health and Human Services and the Nevada State Health Division will be developing a CJS model with Douglas County and implementing a plan to provide environmental health services across their jurisdictions. The project team will develop a toolkit for implementation of the model to be shared with other neighboring jurisdictions. The project goal is to improve the level of services provided while also increasing efficiency and allowing more local control.
“Collaborating on cross-jurisdictional sharing efforts will strengthen relationships in order to develop public health infrastructure models that can be used across Nevada,” stated Marena Works, Director for Carson City Health and Human Services. “This grant will build on opportunities to work together to continue identifying sharing opportunities for improving public health performance and capacity.”
Communities across the country rely increasingly on public health departments for services ranging from immunizations and health education to disaster preparedness and response. In recent years, funding for public health has dropped significantly even as the mission of public health departments has continued to expand.
Cross-jurisdictional sharing enables health departments to share programs, services, and resources across the jurisdictions they serve. Sixteen projects in 14 states are being funded through the Center for Sharing Public Health Services. The Center will help health officials, policy makers and other key stakeholders identify and share best practices as a strategy to expand the quality and availability of services while also improving efficiency.
The Washoe County Health District, in partnership with the University of Nevada Office of Rural Health and the Nevada State Health Division, was awarded this grant to enable the Health District and the northern Nevada counties to explore ways to share resources with the goal of providing more efficient and effective public health services.
The Northern Nevada Shared Services Learning Community project encompasses an eight-county region of northern Nevada, including Churchill, Elko, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Pershing, Washoe, and White Pine County. The goal of the project is to examine both region- and jurisdiction-specific current services and needs, public health funding, infrastructure capacity, and stakeholder perceptions.
Dr. Joe Iser, District Health Officer for the WCHD, stated, “Presently, there are no formal cross-jurisdictional sharing (CJS) arrangements in place between the WCHD and any of the seven rural counties. This Learning Community project represents a groundbreaking opportunity for the regional stakeholders to explore and assess CJS arrangements and the regionalization of public health activities during a period of serious cuts to public health funding and emerging threats to public health in our state.”
The Center for Sharing Public Health Services is a national initiative managed by the Kansas Health Institute (KHI) with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). To learn more, visit www.PHSharing.org
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