A four-year, $4.6 million grant to The University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has established the Arizona Center for Public Health Preparedness (AzCPHP), which aims to enhance the health workforce's readiness when responding to terrorism or other threats to public health.
"The new AzCPHP program will allow us to serve the preparedness training needs of our partner agencies, including the Arizona Department of Health services, our county and tribal health departments, and public health agencies along the border in Sonora, Mexico," said Dr. Jeff Burgess, division director of Environmental and Community Health at the UA Zuckerman College of Public Health and principal investigator for the grant.
Part of a national network of training institutions, the center was established to respond to needs identified by experts from state, local, tribal, rural and border-health agencies in the event of a public-health emergency.
To address these needs, the center aims to increase the number of adequately trained public health personnel, improve preparedness for public health emergencies through leadership training, enhance public health emergency planning, refine communication within and among public health agencies and strengthen core competencies of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Ensuring our state has an adequate number of skilled workers at the right place and at the right time serves to protect the health of all Arizonans," said Brenda Granillo, the center's director.
AzCPHP also will participate in group endeavors with other centers in the network, including preparedness education, planning and resource development, tribal preparedness resource development, and efforts to teach management systems to support preparedness education.
"Preparedness is an ongoing process," added Dr. Burgess. "A strong public health infrastructure is dependent on highly skilled and versatile public health professionals."
"Tragic events such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina highlight the importance of improving the response capacity of the public health workforce and also fostering connectivity among federal, state and local public health agencies," Granillo said.
Many faculty and staff from the UA Zuckerman College of Public Health will be involved with this work.
AzCPHP partners include the Arizona Department of Health Services; health departments in Maricopa, Pima, Cochise, Yuma, Santa Cruz and Yavapai counties; the Western Arizona Area Health Education Center Inc.; the Southeast Arizona Area Health Education Center; Pima Community College; the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center at the UA College of Pharmacy; and the Pharmacy Task Force. In addition, AzCPHP will work with Mexico, particularly in Sonora, to address cross-border training needs and activities.
Participating organizations from the Navajo Nation include the Navajo Division of Health, Diné College and Navajo Area Indian Health Services. Tohono O'odham Nation partners are Tucson Area Indian Health Services, Tohono O'odham Community College and the Tohono O'odham Department of Health Services.