Regional Public Health Training Centers (PHTC) Program

The Regional PHTC Program seeks to increase the number of individuals in the public health workforce, enhance the quality of this workforce, and improve the ability of this workforce to meet national, state, and local health care needs.  Specifically this program aims to strengthen the public health workforce through tailored training and technical assistance involving collaborative, community-based projects.  Training curricula will provide skill-based, interactive instruction and quality education using multiple modalities (i.e., synchronous, asynchronous, distance-based, bi-directional video), underscoring the following eight cross-cutting core public health competency domains in the primary areas of  (1) systems thinking, (2) change management, and (3) persuasive communication; and secondary areas of (4) data analytics, (5) problem solving,
(6) training a “health work force [sic] that reflects and responds to the cultural diversity of populations served” as supported by section 766(b)(1),[1] (7) resource management, and (8) policy engagement.  Each PHTC must develop trainings in the three primary areas and may develop trainings in the secondary areas and beyond based on the results from local health needs assessments.  Among the local health needs, recipients are encouraged to consider addressing the clinical priorities of the HHS including mental health, opioid abuse, and childhood obesity.  Moreover, the program aims to establish and enhance collaborative partnerships among state and local health departments, primary care providers, and related organizations (to include non-traditional partners) as they work together to address critical local public health needs.

[1] The Healthy People 2000 (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hp2000/hp2k01-acc.pdf) supports efforts to increase access to needed services by (1) fostering community-based, integrated systems of care that better respond to the community’s needs; and (2) supporting the development of a health work force that reflects and responds to the cultural diversity of populations served.  These activities support this goal in accordance with section 766(b)(1).