Healthy Alaskans 2020 Implementation Pilot

Abstract

Healthy Alaskans (HA), now in its third iteration (HA2020), is Alaska’s Statewide Health Improvement Plan (SHIP). HA2020 consists of an overarching framework of 25 health goals or Leading Health Indicators (LHIs), for the state to track and achieve by the year 2020. These goals have a broad span and were informed by input from over 3,000 Alaska residents. Building upon the 25 LHIs as well as identifying evidence-based strategies to help achieve these goals brought the initiative to its implementation phase. In order to advance the initiative, four individuals (known as Coordinating Partners or CPs) were chosen to coordinate and pilot action strategies for four of the LHIs: socioeconomic status, suicide, tobacco, and domestic violence. Assessing the CP experience will provide the HA2020 Core Team with feedback from its core partners as it moves forward with implementing strategies to improve all 25 Leading Health Indicators. This practicum consisted of interviews with the CPs about their initial experience, from which themes and recommendations were extracted to assist future outreach and implementation efforts. Consistently occurring themes include the need to explicitly explain the role of the Coordinating Partners and the expectations and timeline for success. CPs expressed lack of clarity and divergent understandings about their role and expectations. Another key component of this practicum project was an extensive environmental scan and an online survey to help identify and document community agencies and individuals actively working to achieve the 25 LHIs. The results were compiled in a searchable spreadsheet with individual tabs for each pilot indicator, and shared with the CPs to facilitate outreach.