A DPH Healthy Connecticut 2020 Objective is to increase to 21% the percentage of governmental public health jurisdictions that meet National Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) standards. Accreditation of local health departments/districts will improve the local public health infrastructure by ensuring that all local health jurisdictions provide a standard level of service.

However, after realistically assessing health departments' capacity to obtain PHAB accreditation, the goal was adjusted to reflect the number of health departments that are currently working towards accreditation. This was done by determining the number of local health departments that are using funds from the The Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant (PHHSBG) towards accreditation activities. The PHHSBG is administered by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through its administrative agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) is designated as the principal state agency for the allocation and administration of the PHHSBG within the State of Connecticut. Local Health Departments may apply to DPH for PHHSBG funding of public health services designed to reduce preventable morbidity and mortality, and to improve the health status of targeted populations, such as cancer education, cardiovascular disease prevention, injury prevention, surveillance monitoring, healthy homes, and national public health accreditation.

For the grant cycle October 2015 – September 2018, 13 unaccredited health departments are using allocated PHHSBG funds towards activities that increase readiness for Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) accreditation, and that improve the quality and performance of the agency. These activities include, but are not limited to, documentation collection, the development of an agency’s Community Health Assessment and Community Health Improvement Plan, or development of an agency quality improvement and performance management system.

As of July 2021, three (3) of the 64 local health departments/districts were accredited – Norwalk, Stratford, and Naugatuck Valley. Thus, the number of local health departments included in the goal is 13, or 21%, of the 64 local health departments/districts.  

Connecticut Department of Public Health, Office of Policy and Management, local public health agencies, public health professional associations, municipal governments and planning agencies, other organizations and coalitions that address public health, community service organizations serving specific populations (children, older adults, underserved populations), health care providers, health professional associations, academic institutions that prepare the public health workforce, philanthropic organizations that address public health infrastructure, and others

National public health department accreditation consists of adoption of a set of standards, a process to measure health department performance against those standards, and recognition for those departments that meet the standards. Public health accreditation standards from the Public Health Accreditation Board define the expectations for all public health departments that seek to become accredited. Public health department accreditation aims to improve the quality of practice and performance within public health departments.

For current year strategies and actions, click here (right click to open link).

Provide financial incentives to health jurisdictions for accreditation and to those who are accredited.

Align Community Health Improvement Plans with goals and strategies in Healthy Connecticut 2020.

Implement the cross jurisdictional sharing of services. Cross-jurisdictional sharing of services is a term used to refer to the wide variety of means by which jurisdictions can collaborate around the provision of public health services. Local health departments (LHDs) across the country are looking to cross-jurisdictional sharing as a way to help them more efficiently and effectively deliver public health services. (http://archived.naccho.org/topics/infrastructure/c...)