After this activity, the student will be able to: 

1. Design a system change strategy to improve the care delivery. 
2. Develop a plan to implement systems change strategies to improve the care environment. 
3. Apply communication skills to advance public health goals with interprofessional teams. 
4. Demonstrate practicality, flexibility, and adaptability in the process of working with others.

In this activity, you will collaborate with your colleagues to design a system change strategy to improve care delivery. 

Step 1: Consider the following scenario: A new government has been installed in your country, you are a team of consultants who have been entrusted to update a component of your healthcare system. Choose a specific issue as the center of your revision plans such as the cervical cancer care system or substance abuse care system.

Step 2: Collaborate with 1 or 2 people or students (build an interprofessional team) to brainstorm ideas for this activity. Brainstorm to develop the components of a system change strategy for the problem you identified based on the following considerations:

• Introduce them to the six steps for planning a health promotion program explored in the readings. 

• Guide the discussion around how to approach each of the steps. For example, ask your team, how can we approach step 1?

• You don’t need to provide a detailed plan. Instead, consider this exercise a brainstorming session that will define your shared vision for the program. These components should be a bullet point list that will act as a starting point for this assignment. 

• Make sure to be flexible, adaptable, and practical while guiding this discussion/collaboration.

Step 3: Based on the reading “Six Components Necessary for Effective Public Health Program Implementation” and the brainstorming session, design and detail a systems change strategy to improve the issue that you identified. Communicate your detailed design in an 800-1500 word essay. Be sure to address the following questions and points in your work. 

• To implement the plan that you designed, how will you address the 6 key areas for the success of a public health program? 

• How collaboration with your team influenced the decision on each of the key areas.

Step 4: Share your work in a discussion post by clicking on the button at the bottom of the screen that reads “Add a new discussion topic.” Include the name of the public health achievement you selected as the subject and paste your work on the “message” box. Be sure to include the bullet list that your group developed in the in-class discussion.

OPTIONAL Step 5: Interact (10 minutes)

If you would like to, you can reply to your peers' posts in a respectful and professional manner. Ensure that your post engages your peers' ideas by including a reflection on their comments, sharing ideas of other potential difficulties and parties involved, or asking thought-provoking questions. If a peer comments on your posting, please reply. To post a reply, click “Reply” on a particular discussion, write your feedback and then click on “Post to forum.”

Suggested readings for this activity:

1. Defining and Implementing a Public Health Response to Drug Use and Misuse

2. Public Health Model of Addiction and Recovery Implications

Throughout this lesson, you have analyzed the core public health functions and essential services. Now, you will apply this knowledge to evaluate the use of these principles in a public health intervention.

Step 1: Identify a public health intervention that was implemented in a specific community/country/region to address alcohol, tobacco, or illicit drug use disorders. You can use an intervention given in this resource or any other intervention of your choice.

Step 2: Prepare a 350 - 600 piece of writing that includes the following points:

• Briefly describe the characteristics of your chosen intervention. Consider the following questions:
  - What were the goals?
  - What was the target population?
  - Was the intervention successful or did it fail?  

• How were the core public health functions and essential services implemented in your chosen intervention?

• Identify any public health functions and essential services that were not implemented in the chosen intervention and suggest challenges or barriers that may have affected delivery of these functions and services.

• Indicate the role of leadership principles at each stage of the intervention in delivering the core public health functions and essential services.

Step 3: To share your work, click on the button “Add a new discussion topic” located at the bottom of the screen. Include the name of the public health achievement you have selected as the subject and paste your work in the “message” box. Make sure to reference others’ intellectual property when necessary. All references should follow 7th Edition APA formatting; see the resource on the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library for instructions: APA citation resource (N.B. references are excluded from word counts).

Step 4: To complete the activity, you will need to comment on at least one post made by your peers, respectfully and professionally. Be sure that your post engages your peers' ideas by including a reflection on their comments, sharing ideas of other potential difficulties and parties involved, or asking thought-provoking questions. If a peer comments on your posting, please reply. To post a reply, click on the particular discussion, then click on “reply.”

OPTIONAL Step 5: Interact (10 minutes)

If you would like to, you can reply to your peers' posts in a respectful and professional manner. Ensure that your post engages your peers' ideas by including a reflection on their comments, sharing ideas of other potential difficulties and parties involved, or asking thought-provoking questions. If a peer comments on your posting, please reply. To post a reply, click “Reply” on a particular discussion, write your feedback and then click on “Post to forum.”