The Community and Clinical Preventive Services (CCPS) program aims to reduce the impact of obesity and related chronic diseases on the state of Texas by focusing on clinical and community systems-level enhancements.

Activities help clinical staff and community-based providers:

• prevent obesity and related chronic diseases.
• reduce or eliminate risk factors.
• detect chronic diseases early.
• mitigate or manage complications.
• empower individuals and families to reduce or eliminate risk factors and self-manage their obesity or related chronic disease.

Use of coordinated, evidence-based preventive services in community and clinical settings can lead to: effective disease management, improved communication and treatment along the continuum of care, reduction of healthcare costs and out-of-pocket expenses and improved population health outcomes. 

Key CCPS Initiatives

Community and Clinical Health Bridge (CCHB)

The CCHB project works in partnership with fourteen local health departments in high priority Texas counties to provide funding and expertise to expand the capacity of local public health systems. The goal is to reduce obesity and related chronic disease and increase healthy eating and physical activity. 

Statewide priorities are to:

• Develop community-clinical referral mechanisms for improved obesity and related chronic disease systems of care.
• Facilitate evidence-based education and training for providers, patients and communities to ensure consistent messaging of reliable health information and collaboration. 
• Reduce barriers to accessing healthcare for prevention of disease, increased early detection and reduction of complications. 
• Coordinate comprehensive data collection, analysis and management to evaluate activities and determine overall impact on health outcomes at the population level.
• Engage community and clinical partners to strengthen partnerships and increase sustainability.
• Encourage healthy lifestyles for individuals, families, and communities through health promotion, outreach and marketing.
  

The fourteen CCHB implementing agencies include:

• Angelina County & Cities Health District
• Hidalgo County Health and Human Resources
• City of Laredo Health Department
• Paris-Lamar County Health District and Red River County
• Wichita Falls-Wichita County Public Health District
• City of Amarillo Department of Public Health
• Dallas County Health and Human Services
• City of El Paso Department of Public Health
• Milam County Health Department
• Waco-McLennan County Public Health District
• Rusk County Health Department
• Abilene-Taylor County Public Health District
• Northeast Texas Public Health District
• San Patricio County Department of Public Health
  

The Electronic Tobacco Referral Protocol (eTP)

Through a partnership with the University of Texas at Austin, the eTP project works to reduce the impact of tobacco and associated chronic diseases on individuals, families, and communities. The eTP project aims to enhance healthcare systems to improve tobacco use screening, counseling, and Quitline referrals by training healthcare professionals, community health workers (CHW) and health education staff on tobacco cessation and use of the Quitline referral applications. 

The eTP project strategies include:

• Identify and engage healthcare systems to implement practice changes for tobacco screening, counseling and referral, targeting areas with the highest tobacco burden.
• Identify and engage Electronic Health Record vendors to incorporate the eTP as an available process for their subscribers in order to enable sustainable practice changes.
• Train CHWs to use the Help to Quit mobile app to increase referrals, targeting areas and populations with the highest tobacco burden in order to address disparities.
• Work with healthcare systems to increase their use of eTP and Ask Advise Refer options, targeting geographic areas with the highest tobacco burden to address disparities.
• Provide technical assistance to healthcare systems, Promotora/CHWs, health education staff and others, as needed, to support their tobacco cessation efforts.
  

For more information on CCPS initiatives, please contact the Obesity Prevention Program.