Local Partnerships for Health on National Forests

Author(s):  
Monika Derrien ◽  
Toby Bloom ◽  
Stacy Duke

The USDA Forest Service has recently piloted health partnerships that facilitate therapeutic outdoor experiences on national forests, building on the growing evidence of the multiple health benefits of activities and time spent in nature. This article presents brief case studies of three pilot partnerships between national forests and health organizations in California, Indiana, and Georgia (USA). These partnerships deliver nature-based programming for the general public as well as those who are in recovery from major surgeries, have been diagnosed with cancer, and face chronic health challenges. To help recreation managers and policy makers understand the potential for such local health partnerships in a federal context, we describe the programs’ enabling conditions, their incorporation of service and stewardship activities, and the challenges and successes they have faced. Insights inform an expanding variety of health partnership models that advance the interconnectedness of human and ecosystem health on public lands as a fundamental dimension of sustainable recreation management.

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Sunderland ◽  
Debra Domalewski ◽  
Elizabeth Kendall ◽  
Kylie Armstrong

This paper focuses on the use of a partnership self-evaluation tool in local health partnerships in Australia. Partnership tools are intended to be used across all phases of partnership development and are typically delivered in the form of a self-administered survey. Survey questions are designed to encourage members of local partnerships to reflect on their progress to date and, if necessary, to reorient future activities to satisfy objectives and desired outcomes. In this paper we argue that without a broader surrounding framework of partnership development and appropriate assistance in administering partnership tools, the potential benefits of self evaluation in local partnerships may be restricted. We base these comments on a study of the use of a partnership self-evaluation tool as part of a broader chronic disease initiative in 17 communities across regional Australia during 2008. Although participants reported favourable outcomes from being involved in the local partnerships, and some found the tool to be of benefit, only 8 of the 17 partnerships actually used the self-evaluation tool. The reported reasons for non-use related primarily to: (1) lack of time; (2) perceptions that it was too early to ‘evaluate’ the partnership; and (3) difficulty in administering the tool. These barriers to use indicate that participants may have been unaware of the potential of the tool to assist in partnership development over time. Partnership participants may require more preparation to use partnership tools in a way that can secure high quality sustainable local health partnerships.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Prenestini ◽  
Marco Sartirana ◽  
Federico Lega

Abstract Background Hybrid professionalism is one of the most effective ways to involve clinicians in management practices and responsibilities. With this study we investigated the perceptions of doctors and nurses on hybridization in clinical directorates (CDs) in hospitals. Methods We investigated the attitudes of healthcare professionals (doctors and nurses) towards eight hospital CDs in the Local Health Authority (LHA) of Bologna (Emilia Romagna, Italy) 6 years after their implementation. We used a validated questionnaire by Braithwaite and Westbrook (2004). Drawing on Palmer et al. (2007), we added a section about the characteristics of department heads. In all, 123 healthcare professionals in managerial roles completed and returned the questionnaire. The return rate was 47.4% for doctors and 31.6% for nurses. Results Doctors reported an increase in clinical governance, interdisciplinarity collaboration, and standardization of clinical work. Hybridization of practices was noted to have taken place. While doctors did not see these changes as a threat to professional values, they felt that hospital managers had taken greater control. There was a large overlap of attitudes between doctors and nurses: inter-professional integration in CDs fostered alignment of values and aims. The polarity index was higher for responses from the doctors than from the nurses. Conclusion The study findings have implications for policy makers and managers: mission and strategic mandate of CDs; governance of CDs, leadership issues; opportunities for engaging healthcare professionals; changes in managerial involvement during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also discuss the limitations of the present study and future areas for research into hybrid structures.


1986 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-43
Author(s):  
Evelyn L. Bull ◽  
Jack Ward Thomas ◽  
Kirk Horn

Abstract A questionnaire was sent to each Ranger District in the Pacific North-west Region of the USDA Forest Service to get information on present snag-management programs. Ninety-five percent of the responding Ranger Districts left snags at levels that ranged from 0.15 snags/ha (0 06/ac) to 12-15 snags/ha (5-6/ac) on all forested lands. Live trees were intentionally left as future snags on 93% of the Ranger Districts. Live trees were killed to create snags on 41% of the Ranger Districts. Management recommendations are made as to the kind of snags to leave and methods of maintaining them. West. J. Appl. For. 1:41-43, April 1986


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 2144 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Cleland ◽  
Keith Reynolds ◽  
Robert Vaughan ◽  
Barbara Schrader ◽  
Harbin Li ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-49
Author(s):  
Lisa Yazel-Smith ◽  
Andrew Merkley ◽  
Robin Danek ◽  
Cynthia Stone

Background Health Impact Assessments (HIA) are a tool used to measure the effect of policies and/or projects that may influence the health of populations. As a way to increase HIA practitioners, university courses in HIA can benefit both students and community organizations by presenting real-world opportunities for students to conduct HIA while partnering with community organizations or policy makers.   Methods In order to conduct the rapid HIA to assess the Indiana Cultural Train (ICT) expansion, students in a graduate-level course conducted a five step HIA process of screening, scoping, assessment, recommendations and reporting, and monitoring and evaluating three potential trail expansion routes. Students examined local health data, conducted walkability assessments, and conducted seven key stakeholder interviews to gather data.   Results The results of data analysis show that the Riley Hospital Drive/Gateway Bridge is the best potential route for expansion due to safety considerations and the impact on the adjacent Ransom Place neighborhood. Six of the seven key informants were in favor of the expansion, with the two most cited reasons being additional space for exercise and recreation and the potential economic impact and connection to local businesses in the area.   Conclusions The expansion across the proposed Gateway Bridge would combat parking issues associated with expanding the trail through Ransom Place as well as be the safest way to approach the large intersections. With local residents’ concerns of gentrification and safety in mind, the ICT trail expansion could lead to increased health outcomes by offering additional space for exercise, recreation, and active transportation.


2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 75 ◽  
Author(s):  
John McDonald ◽  
Angela Murphy ◽  
Warren Payne

Intersectoral partnerships in health have a central role in current policy and programs. Partnerships are seen to be an effective strategy for maximising health outcomes. However, theoretical models of health partnerships are underdeveloped. Moreover, the research literature contains inconsistent findings about their effectiveness, and there has been very little evaluative research on health partnerships in this country. This paper reports on a case study of an intersectoral consortium using a health promotion approach to cardiovascular disease. A model of partnership formation and development is presented. From this, a research strategy was devised and carried out. Results indicate that the health consortium was formed in response to a critical health issue, and as a separate legal entity without recurrent funding, it has been sustained through the commitment of individual members. Project funding has, in large part, dictated its operations. The case study reveals the strengths, vulnerabilities and achievements of this consortium over five years. To produce sustainable health outcomes, the researchers conclude, partnerships require strategic management to capitalise on individual endeavours, organisational alignments, and government or funder priorities. Ideological zeal for intersectoral health partnerships must be balanced by rigorous evaluation; together with more sophisticated indicators for measuring success in partnerships in health promotion. Theoretical development of models of health partnerships will also contribute to their enhanced effectiveness.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Gabbay ◽  
Andrée le May ◽  
Catherine Pope ◽  
Emer Brangan ◽  
Ailsa Cameron ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Healthcare policy-makers are expected to develop ‘evidence-based’ policies. Yet, studies have consistently shown that, like clinical practitioners, they need to combine many varied kinds of evidence and information derived from divergent sources. Working in the complex environment of healthcare decision-making, they have to rely on forms of (practical, contextual) knowledge quite different from that produced by researchers. It is therefore important to understand how and why they transform research-based evidence into the knowledge they ultimately use. Methods We purposively selected four healthcare-commissioning organisations working with external agencies that provided research-based evidence to assist with commissioning; we interviewed a total of 52 people involved in that work. This entailed 92 interviews in total, each lasting 20–60 minutes, including 47 with policy-making commissioners, 36 with staff of external agencies, and 9 with freelance specialists, lay representatives and local-authority professionals. We observed 25 meetings (14 within the commissioning organisations) and reviewed relevant documents. We analysed the data thematically using a constant comparison method with a coding framework and developed structured summaries consisting of 20–50 pages for each case-study site. We iteratively discussed and refined emerging findings, including cross-case analyses, in regular research team meetings with facilitated analysis. Further details of the study and other results have been described elsewhere. Results The commissioners’ role was to assess the available care provision options, develop justifiable arguments for the preferred alternatives, and navigate them through a tortuous decision-making system with often-conflicting internal and external opinion. In a multi-transactional environment characterised by interactive, pressurised, under-determined decisions, this required repeated, contested sensemaking through negotiation of many sources of evidence. Commissioners therefore had to subject research-based knowledge to multiple ‘knowledge behaviours’/manipulations as they repeatedly re-interpreted and recrafted the available evidence while carrying out their many roles. Two key ‘incorporative processes’ underpinned these activities, namely contextualisation of evidence and engagement of stakeholders. We describe five Active Channels of Knowledge Transformation – Interpersonal Relationships, People Placement, Product Deployment, Copy, Adapt and Paste, and Governance and Procedure – that provided the organisational spaces and the mechanisms for commissioners to constantly reshape research-based knowledge while incorporating it into the eventual policies that configured local health services. Conclusions Our new insights into the ways in which policy-makers and practitioners inevitably transform research-based knowledge, rather than simply translate it, could foster more realistic and productive expectations for the conduct and evaluation of research-informed healthcare provision.


2015 ◽  
pp. 1383-1397
Author(s):  
Greenwell Matchaya ◽  
Pauline Allen ◽  
Simon Turner ◽  
Will Bartlett ◽  
Virginie Perotin ◽  
...  

English health policy has promoted the diversity of providers of health care to NHS patients in recent years. Little research has been done to map the extent of actual and possible supply. Using data from four local health economies England the authors found that there was a low supply of such organisations, but that it is growing. Despite the greater emphasis placed by policy makers and researchers on non-profits, there were substantially more for-profits. This suggests they should be subject to further scrutiny, as the pressure to increase diversity of supply increases under the Coalition government.


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