Barriers to Meeting Community Needs in New York State during COVID-19: Results From a Pilot Survey of Nongovernmental Population and Community Health Professionals.

Capacity building and training help empower the community and population health organizations to partner with local health departments and collaboratively design multisectoral interventions that account for the complexity of public health and health promotion challenges in the era of COVID-19 and beyond. Ideally, training programs should be informed by an understanding of the needs and priorities of the professionals for whom they are intended. This brief report focuses on the results of a pilot online survey conducted as part of a larger pilot study by the New York State Association of County Health Officials and the Region 2 Public Health Training Center among population and community health professionals (n = 27) from four counties in New York State during the COVID-19 pandemic. Survey participants included a diverse group of staff members from various large and small nonprofit organizations, federally qualified health centers, academic institutions, hospitals, and insurers. Survey findings provide preliminary insights into the extent to which these organizations have been involved in the COVID-19 response in partnership with LHDs, barriers they faced in responding to the needs of the populations they serve and adjusting their work routines/operations to COVID-19 guidelines, and their top emerging organizational and training needs. Lessons learned from conducting an online survey during a public health emergency and implications for future training interventions for population and community health professionals are also discussed within the context of promoting multisectoral collaboration with local health departments, solving complex public health problems, and advancing health equity.

Enumeration of the Public Health Workforce in New York State: Workforce Changes in the Wake of COVID-19.

The governmental public health workforce in the United States has faced staffing shortages for over a decade that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. To assess this critical issue, the Region 2 Public Health Training Center collaborated with the New York State Association of County Health Officials to enumerate the city and county public health workforce in New York State. The organizations used an online survey to: (1) count employees and full-time equivalent (FTEs) staff in local health departments in 2021; (2) assess workforce trends since the COVID-19 pandemic; and, (3) identify challenges local health departments encounter in recruiting and retaining qualified public health workers. To assess trends, findings were compared with secondary data from 2019. Despite playing a central role in COVID-19 mitigation, local health departments experienced no overall increase in staffing in 2021 compared to 2019, with many health departments experiencing large increases in vacant positions. Recruitment challenges include noncompetitive salaries, difficulties finding qualified candidates, and lengthy hiring processes. This study complements accumulating evidence indicating that long-term investment in local public health infrastructure is needed to bolster the workforce and ensure that communities are protected from current and future health threats.