Health education opportunities for Michigan legislators and legislative staff, Phase II
Due to the substantial turnover and subsequent loss of subject matter expertise in health issues in both the state House and Senate each election cycle, there is a need to support of both legislators and their staff. This project will help build and maintain an important baseline level of knowledge about policy-relevant health topics and their impact on the people of Michigan.
In Phase I of this project, CHRT, IPPSR, and Health Fund staff gathered input from legislators and legislative staff on topics of interest for primers, discussions, and forums. To date, CHRT has developed three primers to coincide with two discussion forums:
- The healthcare workforce in Michigan
- Supporting direct care workers in Michigan: Strategies from other states
- Addressing the behavioral health crisis in Michigan: Strategies for enhancing access and coverage.
CHRT worked with IPPSR and the Health Fund to hold two events focused on these topics with and for legislators and their staff.
In Phase II of this project, CHRT will develop the following:
- Each quarter, CHRT will lead the development of concise, informative written primers on priority topics as identified by input from legislators, staffers, and through discussion with IPPSR and the Health Fund.
- CHRT will develop and facilitate round-table discussions with and for legislators and their staff. Convenings will occur twice per year in person, and one additional virtual session.
- CHRT will create a website that will be a virtual “go-to” space where legislators and their staff can find the briefs and other deliverables produced from this project, as well as other relevant health policy information. This feature will create an asynchronous, virtual hub for health policy information that will be searchable, curated to meet current Michigan legislative health policy needs, and tailored to the specific requests or needs identified from meetings with legislators.
- CHRT will utilize its State of the State survey or another survey vehicle to collect and analyze data to illuminate and support key health policy discussions and/or to include in the topical primers
- CHRT will build a rapid response mechanism that allows legislators and their staff to make requests to CHRT for information as needed to inform policy decisions with evidence.