Public Health Approach

The Public Health Approach to Fighting ACEs

A public health crisis calls for a public health response The public health approach is a framework for understanding the impact of ACEs across a lifespan and how unbuffered toxic stress can impact the communities where we live, work, and play

Individuals impact their relationships, relationships build communities, and communities affect society The same is true in reverse where societal policies and practices can impact the function of communities, which either supports or hinders relationships and individuals

The public health framework is an approach that can be used by decision makers within community sector systems to organize, identify, and target responses to areas of opportunity The framework positions Palm Beach County to prevent and mitigate the effects of adversity by moving upstream of the problem, using data to target high areas of need, in order to impact larger sectors of the population With Quantum Foundation support since 2016, Center for Child Counseling has implemented a public health approach within the Fighting ACEs Initiative. This paper is meant to present the public health framework as a response to the ACEs research, to highlight opportunity for levers of change and innovation within Palm Beach County, and to suggest a collaborative call to action building on the strengths, interest, and energy present in Palm Beach County

Broadest Approach for Maximum Impact

The focus of public health is on the health, safety and wellbeing of entire populations . It relies on knowledge from a broad range of disciplines including medicine, epidemiology, sociology, psychology, criminology, education, and economics. The field also emphasizes input from diverse sectors including health, education, social services, justice, policy and the private sector

Public health draws on a science base that is multidisciplinary This broad knowledge base has allowed the field of public health to respond successfully to a range of health conditions across the globe Utilizing a public health framework will allow us to have wider-ranging impact than the traditional disease- centric model Disease Model aims to address health only as the absence of illness Public Health Approach requires wider range of partners

Cross-Sector Approach

Networks are the backbones of systems and relationships matter…We need each other to accomplish our goals. The health of our community is a reflection of the health of our networks Palm Beach County cross sector approaches either work or do not work as a function of our relationships and our ability to utilize research and disseminate it through informed, adjusted practices, with a focused targeted approach