Cobb & Douglas Public Health (CDPH) was recently honored with the Model Practice Award at the 2016 Annual Conference of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) held in Phoenix AZ. The award celebrates local health departments for developing programs that demonstrate exemplary and replicable best practices in response to a critical local public health need. CDPH’s “Food Safety Partnership Panel” was one of 23 health department programs to receive NACCHO’s prestigious Model Practice Award.
(L to R) Dr. Jack Kennedy, District Health Director, Cobb & Douglas Public Health and Karen Gulley, Environmental Health County Manager, Cobb & Douglas Public Health, receive a 2016 Model Practice Award from the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
The “Food Safety Partnership Panel” is an innovative television program that enhances food safety practices beyond regulatory requirements and strengthens our partnership with the food service industry and community. Each episode’s panel consists of one or more representatives from the food service industry, a consumer that resides within the community, and a CDPH Environmental Health manager, who serves as the host. What initially started out as a one time tabletop discussion of the most common food safety violations observed in restaurants turned into an ongoing series where viewers are able to explore current, locally identified, real world issues that continually challenge food safety in the community. These issues are highlighted via the use of situational dramatizations coupled with an open-panel discussion to produce an end-product that enhances knowledge and encourages change in the viewers. The completed partnership panel episodes may be viewed and used by the food service industry, general public, and regulators as both a resource for the application of food safety principles and as general infotainment. As each episode is completed, it is subsequently broadcast on local government access cable channels (Cobb TV23 and DCTV23) and made available for on-demand viewing on the CDPH Vimeo channel as well as the CDPH, Cobb TV23, and DCTV23 websites.
“We are very pleased to receive NACCHO’s Model Practice Award for the Food Safety Partnership Panel,” said Dr. Jack Kennedy, District Health Director, Cobb & Douglas Public Health. “This award confirms our commitment to developing responsive and innovative public health programs and partnerships that improve the health and safety of our local residents.”
Since 2003, NACCHO’s Model Practice Awards have honored programs, resources, and tools that demonstrate how local health departments and their community partners can effectively collaborate to address local public health challenges. Each innovative project receiving the Model Practice Award was peer-reviewed and selected from a competitive group of 69 applicants.
“This award puts Cobb & Douglas Public Health in special company with a select group of health departments that exemplify a forward-thinking, proactive approach toward protecting and promoting the health of communities nationwide,” said NACCHO Executive Director Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck.
The “Food Safety Partnership Panel” is now part of an online, searchable database of successful public health practices in areas that range from immunization and maternal and child health, to infectious diseases and emergency preparedness. The NACCHO Model Practice database allows local health departments, public health partners, and other important stakeholders to learn about the good work being done by local health departments across the country. The database also provides users an opportunity to learn from best practices and what resources are needed to implement comparable programs in other jurisdictions that produce results.
Read more about these award-winning programs at http://www.naccho.org/topics/modelpractices/.
About the National Association of County and City Health Officials:
The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) represents the nation’s 2,800 local governmental health departments. These cities, counties, metropolitan, district and tribal departments work every day to protect and promote health and well-being for all people in their communities.