Is your LPHA considering accreditation? Is staff capacity an issue? Do you wonder whether achieving accreditation is worth the effort given stretched resources? If any of this applies to you, let’s talk. MOCPHE is renowned for assisting local public health agencies in developing programs, training staff, and enhancing community health. Recently, we secured a state grant that allows us to offer multiple levels of training and assistance to help your organization achieve accreditation from either state or national public health accrediting bodies. We offer a range of assistance to public health departments who want to become accredited – and much of what we do is offered for free or at a reduced cost. We would love to talk with you about your needs and how we can help. Our members include a wide variety of urban, suburban, and rural health departments, including all of Missouri’s current PHAB accredited LPHAs and most of the MICH accredited departments. MOCPHE has more than a decade of experience offering strategy and peer support networking specific to accreditation and best practices, giving us a unique insight into the processes and needs of accreditation from the people who implement and practice the principles of accreditation. We leverage this exceptional network of relationships to provide peer support, expertise, lessons learned, and valuable insights into the accreditation processes of both MICH and PHAB. We have deep respect for all LPHAs who have gone through this journey, and we are excited to be a part of assisting more LPHAs to meet these standards. MOCPHE recognizes that LPHAs across the state may find themselves in varying stages of interest, commitment, and implementation of accreditation, whether it be from MICH or PHAB. This understanding guides the development of our methodology by offering differential activities based on the appropriate stage of change for each department. Those four stages are exploration; assessment; implementation; and institutionalization. MOCPHE tailors its accreditation services to the stage each LPHA finds itself in. Achieving accreditation indicates that a health department has met standards of accountability and credibility to the public, its funders and partner organizations. Accredited health departments have proven that they have: • Created or strengthened quality improvement programs. • Strengthened partnerships with stakeholders across their jurisdictions. • Increased transparency leading to higher accountability. • Surveyed and identified gaps in their workforce management strategies. • Used health data to identify key public health issues and developed strategic priorities to address the top issues in their jurisdiction. • Emphasized examining health issues and data through the lens of health equity to improve outcomes in underserved and disadvantaged communities. Sound good? Then we should talk about how we can help your department get accredited. Helping you gets us closer to our goal of transforming the state’s public health system to improve the health of all Missourians. And once you’ve achieved accreditation, your staff will be trained and ready for reaccreditation when the time comes. Please contact us by emailing Program Manager Leah Moser at lmoser@mocphe.org to schedule a conversation. We can’t wait to help you!

MOCPHE was recently named one of the awardees for a Qualified Vendors List for DHSS and others seeking contract public health staffing. More information to come!‍