Public health leaders need to influence change to serve underserved populations, such as people who have a disability. Action research was conducted with a community of practice (CoP) from Ohio to examine readiness, capacity building, and capacity factors needed for public health partners to more fully include people who have a disability (PWD) in state smoking cessation efforts. Five conditions fostered readiness, capacity building, and capacity among public health partners to include PWD: (1) successful timing of effort, (2) facilitation of discussions, (3) systematic reflection, (4) sufficient support, and (5) personal commitment of participants. Nine factors of readiness, capacity building, and capacity influenced inclusion of PWD: (1) positive perception and quality interactions with partners, (2) contact with organizations, (3) recognition of need to coordinate, (4) engagement in a network, (5) practical collaboration experience, (6) continuing education, (7), critical reflection time, (8) dedicated staff, and (9) knowledge of priority population. Readiness, capacity, and capacity building were interconnected and supported inclusion of PWD in public health efforts. Ohio public health partners used these factors and conditions to achieve the first mandatory disability awareness training for all National Jewish Health Quitline counselors. Future efforts addressing other specific demographic groups that experience health disparities can use these findings.
In local emergency preparedness planning, there is a lack of disability inclusion and equity. We conceptualize this problem as an adaptive challenge, an issue that is hard to define, hard to solve and must be solved by people most impacted. This conceptualization led us to utilize action research to describe how disability inclusion and equity may be built in this area. Building on previously develop models of increasing inclusion through capacity-building, we describe results of virtually convened Action Learning groups to add to the understanding of the facilitators of disability inclusion and equity in local emergency planning. We found that participants utilized four main themes in their capacity-building work: partnership, interests and values, forward motion, and organizational development. These themes were strengthened by elements of adaptive thinking that connected the main themes to each other. These included: network exchange, envision what's next, systematic reflection, and valuing partnership. We discuss our findings' implications and suggest further research to conceptualize and enact disability inclusion and equity.
Background This study evaluated the presence of the Inclusion Wheel Model’s factors and conditions across programs on a variety of public health topics, in which people with disabilities were intentionally included. Purpose We used an action research approach to facilitate three learning groups and two communities of practice, including participants from the national disability community, nonprofit, university, and government public health partners. Method We conducted a qualitative analysis using virtual meetings, meeting notes, and the series of feedback surveys as data sources. A primary coder and secondary coder reviewed, coded, and analyzed each data source according to preset coding schemes, using a previously developed codebook based on the Model. All supports and factors of the Inclusion Wheel were identified, including adaptive leadership supports, readiness for the change of including people with disabilities in public health efforts, capacity building activities, and capacity efforts across settings and topics. Conclusion This examination has critical implications for public health trainers, leaders, and program designers on the inclusion of people with disabilities and other underserved populations in health promotion efforts. Public health practitioners must serve the whole community, including underserved and marginalized demographic groups, like the one in four Americans living with a disability. The Inclusion Wheel may be used as a model to guide disability inclusion training among public health partners and leaders in nonprofit, corporate, and government sectors, as well as to prioritize involvement of marginalized and underserved population groups in planning health promotion efforts.
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