Public Health Practice

Practice-Based Education and Training

Community Health Program Planning (EPH542b)

The Yale School of Public Health has a long-term commitment to creating opportunities for students to work with local organizations. The Community Projects course was first offered in 1968, and then later became a required course for all MPH students in the 2nd semester of their first year. Most of the time was spent in the agency, working on a specific project, with a team of five or six students. Many alumni who completed this course remember the experience as a formative part of their MPH training. The course is no longer required, although students are still required to complete a public health practice experience. As the course is currently designed, it develops students’ skills in planning and designing public health programs. The course content is based on an ecological framework, principles of public health ethics, and a philosophy of problem-based learning. Students complete a number of class assignments that are built around a practicum project designed and implemented on behalf of a local agency or organization. Short reports on some of the projects from previous years are available below. The prospectus with projects available for the spring 2010 semester is available here. The information session for the spring course will be on November 4 at noon. Please e-mail Debbie Humphries with any questions.

Field Action Reports 2009

An Analysis of Goals and Values of Stakeholders in Community Health

• Yale School of Public Health Student Team: Sarah Bowman, Javier Cepeda, Nevada Griffin, Megan McLaughlin, Lesley Park, Tim Mercer

Assessing Cancer Support Needs of the Southern Connecticut Region: Establishing a Wellness Community

• Yale School of Public Health Student Team: Carly Leggett, Nicole Mayard, Marisa Spann, Nkem Okafor
• The Wellness Community of Southern Connecticut: Yasemin Turkman, Henri Lichenstein

Experience of HIV/AIDS Testing, Care and Discharge for Inmates in Connecticut

• Yale School of Public Health Student Team: Jessica Hamon, Otis Pitts, Liliana Angelica Ponguta, Raphael Shaw, Chirisse Taylor, Diana Sanchez
• Connecticut AIDS Resource Coalition: Shawn Lang

Finding Space in the Neighborhood: Future Directions for the Young Parents Program

• Yale School of Public Health Student Team: Aaron Cook, Eliza Little, Camellia Mortazazedeh
• Community Mental Health Associates: Connie Catrone

Health Outreach to Reduce Low Birth Weight in New Haven, CT

• Yale School of Public Health Student Team: Laura Chandhok, Leah Hoffman, Richard Oduro, Thu-Trang Thach, Diana Sanchez
• New Haven Health Department: Maria Damiani

For additional information please contact Debbie Humphries.

Connecticut Partnership for Public Health Workforce Development

The Connecticut Partnership for Public Health Workforce Development promotes and facilitates collaborative education and training programs among academic institutions, state and local public health agencies and organizations to enhance the quality of public health services, especially for underserved areas and populations in the region.

YSPH formed the Connecticut Partnership in 2000 and expanded to cover the State of Rhode Island in 2006. The Partnership is a member of the New England Alliance for Public Health Workforce Development, one of 14 regional public health training centers across the country funded by the Federal Health Resources and Services Administration. The regional training centers work to improve the Nation’s public health system by strengthening the technical, scientific, managerial and leadership skills and abilities of the current and future public health workforce.

For additional information please click here or contact Linda Degutis.

Information Outreach for Connecticut Public Health

The EPH Library and the medical school library have received a grant from the New England Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine for a project to promote the use of the Internet in obtaining current biomedical information relevant to the practice of public health by professional staff in health departments and districts in Connecticut. Library staff provides training in the use of computers to access the biomedical and public health literature and important sites on the world wide web relevant to public health practice. Access to the library collections and document delivery is also supported.

For additional information, contact Matthew Wilcox at (203) 785-5680, matthew.wilcox@yale.edu.

Joint Preventive Medicine Residency Program

EPH and Griffin Hospital, a non-profit hospital serving the Lower Naugatuck Valley, share responsibilities for running a preventive medicine residency. Griffin Hospital is the accredited site, while the academic year, leading to the M.P.H. degree, is completed at EPH. This community-based partnership uses a community setting for training in applied public health and an academic setting for teaching academic research and the basic core public health areas to clinicians.

For additional information, visit the Program’s web site, or contact Dr. Haq Nawaz at (203) 732-1268.

New England Public Health Training Center

EPH is a partner with the schools of public health at Harvard, Boston University, Tufts, and the University of Massachusetts in a HRSA-funded training center which focuses on public health workforce development in the New England region. The goals of the New England Public Health Training Center are to provide a vehicle for collaborative continuing education and professional development programs and activities and to promote distance education.

For additional information, contact Linda Degutis, Yale representative, at (203) 785-3917, linda.degutis@yale.edu.

New Haven Health Database on the World Wide Web

The EPH library is in the process of updating and expanding a web site which will serve as a guide for locating information regarding the public health of greater New Haven, Connecticut. It provides data, documents, photographs, and information about community organizations to researchers, students, health officials, administrators, and community members interested in public health.

For additional information, contact Matthew Wilcox at (203) 785-5680, matthew.wilcox@yale.edu.