Upstream Public Health

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by Shalynn Robinette4 views·Updated Jan 17, 2021
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  1. Hi. So as a non profit organization, Upstream believes that
  2. smart policies are the best way to create communities that
  3. help people lead healthier, fuller lives.
  4. They seek out the most innovative, broad based public health
  5. solutions that air backed by science and research, move them
  6. into the mainstream dialogue and build momentum for change.
  7. Their goal is to address pressing health issues and improve
  8. people's well being.
  9. One policy at a time.
  10. The name upstream comes from an analogy used by John
  11. McKinley in an address to the American Heart Association in
  12. 1974. Imagine a rapidly flowing river where people are constantly
  13. rescuing drowning victims, but they have not looked upstream to
  14. see what is causing people to fall into the river
  15. upstream. Public health does exactly that.
  16. They work on upstream factors to create a new paradigm
  17. for public health.
  18. Upstream advances policy solutions designed to change the systemic conditions
  19. that contribute to poor health.
  20. They conduct research, educate key decision makers, create influential coalitions
  21. and elevate public health and health equity issues through public
  22. forum, an advisory groups across the state and region.
  23. Yeah, as you probably can guess from their name upstream
  24. is focused on public health issues.
  25. When I interviewed Lily, she said that initially there focus
  26. was on decreasing the use of tobacco in Oregon.
  27. Uh, when they were working to create the tobacco Free
  28. Coalition of Oregon.
  29. Um, they did some some research on the effects of
  30. poverty and how advertising that is directed at young people
  31. and Children.
  32. How that effects, um, the use of tobacco.
  33. They also did some research on other countries and states
  34. that had worked on creating policy to prevent the use
  35. of tobacco in public places such as restaurants and bars.
  36. They are moving away from that work and really focusing
  37. on their healthy, active Oregon initiative.
  38. So the majority of this presentation is going to cover
  39. that there is some subgroups to that initiative, which include
  40. healthy kids, healthy schools, healthy drinks, healthy kids, Onda Early
  41. Learning Standards Initiative before we move completely away from it.
  42. Though upstream is the fiscal age go free coalition of
  43. Oregon eso a little bit of background on the healthy,
  44. active Oregon coalition.
  45. It is a state WAAS include reducing the consumption of
  46. sugary drinks, and they're going to take the lead on
  47. the 2020 goals for healthy, active Oregon are too.
  48. Talk about their strategic initiatives, continued to build a broad
  49. based diverse memberships and to create a plan for the
  50. 2021 statewide strategic priorities.
  51. Um, they are led by four guiding principles when they
  52. look at doing this sort of work.
  53. And those principles are that a strong, effective coalition must
  54. center relationships among social identities and lived experience, including race,
  55. ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, immigration status, sexual orientation, age and
  56. disability status.
  57. In his organizational and leadership building approach, obesity is not
  58. the result of an individual's personal failure.
  59. It is a function of economic, environmental, political and racial
  60. inequalities and must be addressed at a systemic level.
  61. Addressing these root causes is essential to reducing health disparities.
  62. Wait related chronic conditions impact Oregonians of all backgrounds across
  63. the lifespan.
  64. Improving health health outcomes will require complex, multifaceted multi sector
  65. solutions, prioritizing policy systems and environmental approaches with the most
  66. potential for sustainable population level impact.
  67. While encouraging implementation of evidence based programs is critical to
  68. transforming current healthy weight trends in Oregon, the goals of
  69. upstream public health are to promote policies within public, private
  70. and community sectors that improve health provide credible, accurate and
  71. timely information about the health of Oregonians.
  72. Promote broad understanding of the connection between public policy and
  73. public health.
  74. Reduce health disparities, build community support to expand outreach and
  75. to be a vehicle for all people to improve their
  76. health and the health of the people they care about.
  77. Um, when we talked about what policy tools upstream health
  78. focuses on, we had an informant.
  79. Excuse me.
  80. We had a conversation about the use of innovation hubs,
  81. and that was a new term for me.
  82. So I did a little bit of research, and this
  83. is what I came up with.
  84. Innovation hubs are geographic concentrations of accelerated ideation.
  85. When brought together, policy makers can create a pivotal connection
  86. between leading experts, data business strategist, investors, entrepreneurs, academic institutions,
  87. community partners and talent in various locations across the country.
  88. Furthermore, they allow for the don't go it alone philosophy
  89. by actively engaging in a diverse community of ideas, organizations
  90. and talent.
  91. Obviously, they also use coalitions a lot in their work.
  92. Coalitions build momentum for policies, systems and environmental change, and
  93. that is their aim.
  94. Their coalition will create a foundation for strategic initiatives by
  95. reaching out to communities around Oregon and explore innovative local
  96. policies that can scale thio that can scale to statewide
  97. implementation. So that is my overview of upstream public health
  98. and the policy work they do.
  99. I really enjoyed talking with their executive director and learning
  100. a little bit more about the organization on Di Do
  101. Believe They're doing good work there.
  102. Thank you so much.