Health Care

Healthy Phrasing

October 1, 2019  • Institute Staff

In July, the Institute introduced Public Health Reaching Across Sectors, or “PHRASES,” to the hundreds of local leaders attending a meeting of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. PHRASES, a joint initiative of the Institute’s Health, Medicine and Society Program and the de Beaumont Foundation, is researching how housing, education, health-systems, and business leaders think about public health in their work. The goal is to create a set of recommendations and tools that help public health professionals become better communicators and build healthier communities. “We all know partnerships are essential,” said John Dreyzehner, the former health commissioner of Tennessee and a member of the PHRASES Advisory Committee. “But we also know they’re hard. Any partnership requires constant, effective communication.” The right perspective is also key, said Nat Kendall-Taylor, the CEO of the FrameWorks Institute. “When public-health professionals better understand how leaders in other sectors think, they can focus their communication efforts on cultivating an understanding of the social determinants of health.” Soledad O’Brien, the co-chair of the PHRASES Advisory Committee and the CEO of Starfish Media Group, added her insights about the power of storytelling to shape the way people think about public health. PHRASES will roll out resources, developed with the FrameWorks Institute, by early 2020.

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