Injury and Violence Prevention: A Local Health Department Perspective: Examination of Local Health Department Capacity and Infrastructure for Injury and Violence Prevention (PDF)

In 2011, NACCHO surveyed local health departments to learn more about their infrastructure and capacity to prevent unintentional injury and violence. NACCHO also conducted eight key informant interviews to learn more about agencies' infrastructure and capacity. Based on the results of this infrastructure and capacity assessment, NACCHO recommends the following to improve local capacity for injury and violence prevention: (1) increase local, state, and federal funding to develop and maintain local prevention strategies and infrastructure at all local health departments; (2) support collaborative efforts among local, state, tribal, and federal public health agencies and community partners; (3) integrate an injury and violence prevention perspective into other public health efforts; (4) develop and implement evidence-based practices and innovative, promising, or model practices; and (5) ensure ongoing training and support to increase capacity of all LHDs to identify health disparities, address health inequities, monitor local data and trends, and assess impact of local prevention efforts.