Kentucky-Appalachian Public Health Training Center

  • Lamberth, Cynthia (PI)
  • Dearinger, Angela (CoI)
  • Knight, Evelyn (CoI)
  • Prybil, Lawrence (CoI)
  • Scutchfield, F (CoI)
  • Stone, Ramona-Elena (CoI)

Grants and Contracts Details

Description

Building on our ten-year partnership with the Southeast Public Health Training Center (PHTC), the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Public Health and its Office of Workforce Development seek to establish a PHTC designed to meet the public health training needs of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the Central Appalachian Region. The Kentucky and Appalachia Public Health Training Center’s (KA PHTC) primary mission is to expand partnerships and critical linkages among state and local practice and academic partners in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the Central Appalachian region in order to provide improved access to education and training for the current and future public health workforce and members of the public health system. We also seek to strengthen competence, performance, and capacity to improve the nation’s public health system through our affiliation with the PHTC Network. Our proposed work includes developing training for the existing public health system workforce; encouraging students to select public health as a profession, collaborating with professional degree programs in medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, and health sciences for students who seek public health degrees and certifications; and providing stipends for students already enrolled in a public health degree program to encourage field placements in medically underserved areas. We will work to improve the public health training of those individuals in public health practice in Kentucky’s underserved rural communities, most notably Appalachia. Our strategy also includes serving the training needs of the Community Health Centers (CHCs) and other public health personnel in the broader public health system by assisting them with the opportunities and challenges created by the advent of health systems reform. We believe the opportunities of health reform and the new community based data initiative will require the establishment of new areas of competence along with training to develop these skills. Our hope would be to work with others within the PHTC Network to tackle these emerging needs. The strength of our approach is the experience of our partners in reaching our target population and the ability of our team to prepare learning programs and products that will equip and empower the workforce to impact the health outcomes of their communities. Cultural sensitivity is critical when working in the diverse, rural, and Appalachian communities, and our team includes several partners who have proven track records of effectively working with these groups. The University of Kentucky has for the last ten years operated the Kentucky Public Health Leadership Institute (KPHLI) and offered, in conjunction with the state department for public health, training programs for practitioners throughout the Commonwealth. Cynthia D. Lamberth, MPH, CPH, the PI of the KA PHTC and F. Douglas Scutchfield, MD, Co-PI, are known throughout the region for their ability to bring diverse parties with competing agendas to a common table to work for the good of the whole. The number of organizations willing to participate in the Center is evidence of this collaborative spirit we enjoy throughout the state.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date9/1/108/31/12

Funding

  • Health Resources and Services Administration: $718,517.00

Fingerprint

Explore the research topics touched on by this project. These labels are generated based on the underlying awards/grants. Together they form a unique fingerprint.