Public Health in the Rockies 2026

Public health professionals are increasingly required to engage in complex, and often contentious, conversations—particularly around vaccines and other high-profile health issues. While access to accurate information is essential, research consistently shows that data alone is insufficient to influence decision-making or build trust. There is a clear need for skill development in communication strategies that are grounded in evidence, responsive to community concerns, and adaptable across diverse audiences.

This skill-building session is designed to address that gap by equipping participants with practical tools to communicate effectively with a range of stakeholders, including community members, healthcare providers, and policymakers. The session will focus on key content areas including audience-centered messaging, strategies for addressing misinformation, and approaches for translating complex public health data into clear, actionable, and accessible messages. Particular attention will be given to how communication strategies can be adapted to reflect community values, lived experiences, and varying levels of trust in public health systems.

The session is grounded in best practices from public health communication, behavioral science, and motivational interviewing. It emphasizes the importance of trust-building, active listening, and framing messages in ways that resonate with different audiences. Participants will learn how to move beyond one-directional information sharing and instead engage in meaningful, two-way dialogue that supports informed decision-making and strengthens relationships between communities and public health systems.

This session directly supports skill development by focusing on real-world application. Rather than a lecture-based format, the session is designed to provide participants with opportunities to practice and refine communication strategies that can be immediately applied in their professional settings. The skills developed in this session are critical for public health professionals working in clinical, community, and policy environments, particularly as they navigate increasing misinformation and polarization.

This session aligns with the Public Health in the Rockies theme of Stronger Together by emphasizing collaboration, shared learning, and the importance of engaging across differences. By centering communication as a tool for building trust and advancing health equity, the session supports CPHA’s commitment to fostering a more equitable public health system. It recognizes that historical and structural inequities—including racism—shape how communities experience and respond to public health efforts, and it provides participants with strategies to communicate in ways that are inclusive, respectful, and responsive.

Ultimately, this session is relevant to a wide range of public health professionals seeking to strengthen their ability to communicate effectively, use data to support advocacy, and build more resilient, community-centered public health systems.

Public health is facing decreasing funding and increasingly complex health challenges like high rates of chronic diseases, substance misuse, multi-state outbreaks, rising suicide rates, and natural disasters. There are no single, simple solutions to these problems and no organization can do it alone. To affect system-wide changes, we must first understand how the system is currently functioning and work together with partners to identify opportunities for change.

Background / Purpose: Colorado faces significant healthcare access disparities driven by economic, geographic, and systemic barriers. Federal workforce shortage models fall short in modeling these gaps because they exclude non-physician clinicians, fail to capture demographic variations in demand, and use a relatively coarse geographic resolution. In 2018 in response to these limitations, Board of Health Rule 6 CCR 1015-6 created authority for state health professional shortage area (sHPSA) designation to be administered in parallel with federal HPSAs. In this presentation, we debut our latest advancement to this work: Our newly developed Medicaid-specific sHPSAs.

Methods: Data capturing the supply of Medicaid health services were available via a custom Medicaid Claims data extract from the Colorado All-Payer Claims Database (CO APCD). The annual volume of Medicaid encounters is summed for each healthcare facility and health discipline (primary, dental, behavioral, and perinatal). Demand is based on Census Block Group Medicaid enrollment estimates, and is adjusted for varying rates of need by age, sex, and health discipline. The Variable Two-Step Floating Catchment Area method is used to calculate the ratio between supply and demand for each census block group.

Results: Medicaid sHPSAs yield a highly accurate, localized assessment of shortage by comparing actual Medicaid claims data to the demographic-specific needs of the enrolled population. Similar to all-payer models, shortages are most severe in rural and frontier communities; however, Medicaid sHPSAs reveal a distinct geographic pattern relative to all-payer models.

Implications: Medicaid-specific shortage models are increasingly important given the evolving federal policy landscape, constrained state budgets, and changing Medicaid eligibility requirements. Relying solely on all-payer models risks obscuring specific access barriers experienced by the Medicaid enrolled population. This strategic approach accurately maps where shifts in Medicaid coverage intersect with safety-net capacity, enabling state and local organizations to direct interventions efficiently and optimize limited public resources.

Public health professionals are navigating increasing levels of burnout, compassion fatigue, workforce strain, and disconnection from the deeper purpose that brought them into this work. This interactive wellness and professional development session is designed to create intentional space for reflection, restoration, and reconnection through guided journaling, facilitated mindfulness practices, and peer connection.

Participants will engage in a series of reflective prompts exploring identity, values, resilience, leadership, boundaries, hope, and purpose within both their personal and professional lives. Through trauma-informed facilitation and narrative reflection, attendees will be invited to reconnect with the motivations and commitments that sustain their work in public health and community care.

The second half of the session will focus on structured networking and community-building through paired and small-group dialogue. Participants will have the opportunity to share insights, experiences, and commitments in a supportive environment that fosters authentic connection and collective encouragement.

This session is designed not only as a moment of personal renewal, but as a practical professional development experience that strengthens reflective leadership, emotional sustainability, relationship-building, and workforce resilience. Attendees will leave with actionable reflective practices, deeper peer connections, and renewed clarity around the impact and purpose of their work.

Across 2024-2025, the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials (CALPHO), in partnership with the Colorado Health Institute (CHI), the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), and local public health agencies (LPHAs), conducted a statewide data assessment to better understand local public health data capacity. Using a mixed-methods approach that included journey mapping workshops and key informant interviews, the assessment identified key barriers, strengths, and actionable opportunities to improve Colorado’s local public health data ecosystem.

Findings from the assessment highlighted a strong need for accessible resources and direct technical assistance designed to meet agencies where they are and support immediate application within local contexts. In direct response to barriers and opportunities identified through the assessment, CALPHO has developed a range of practical capacity-building support resources and launched a data assistance program to help agencies use data more effectively.

This session will highlight applied tools, customizable support services, and real-world examples of how local public health agencies are using these supports in practice. Topics will include CALPHO’s Data Modernization Toolkit & Framework, direct technical assistance, and collaborative peer learning opportunities designed to support shared learning and approaches that can be adapted across agencies of varying size and capacity.

Through local public health use cases, attendees will leave with a clear understanding of what shared resources currently exist, how they can be used within their own agencies, and how to engage in ongoing statewide data modernization efforts moving forward.

Background: Long COVID impacts thousands of Coloradans, causing a wide range of chronic symptoms requiring comprehensive care. Primary care is typically the first point of health system contact for patients experiencing Long COVID symptoms. As part of the Colorado Multidisciplinary Translation Network (CO-MTN) project, we surveyed primary care clinicians and staff from 17 different practices to understand their perspectives on provision of Long COVID care.

Methods: Data were collected via REDCap and descriptively analyzed. Survey questions included perceived importance of, satisfaction with, barriers to, and confidence in ability to provide Long COVID care. We also assessed discrimination and stigma towards Long COVID patients using the Medical Condition Regard scale.

Results: We received survey responses from 249 primary care clinicians and staff (75% response rate). Most (69%) indicated they thought that primary care practices should provide treatment and symptom management for patients with Long COVID. When asked how satisfied they were with their practice’s ability to help patients manage Long COVID symptoms, 42% reported satisfaction while half reported that it depended on the patient or that they didn’t know. Frequently cited concerns regarding provision of Long COVID care included lack of workflows, gaps in clinician knowledge, and limited time. Nearly half of clinicians reported low confidence in their ability to provide high-quality Long COVID symptom management. Few respondents answered the Medical Condition Regard scale questions in ways that strongly indicated discrimination or stigma towards patients with Long COVID. However, only 39% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that “working with patients like this is satisfying.”

Implications: There is room for improvement in primary care teams’ abilities and capacities to care for Long COVID patients. The CO-MTN project is now implementing a variety of supports for primary care practices to address these gaps.