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ESPHL PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
MINNESOTA
July 2014
Team Members:
Edward Ehlinger *
Susan Allen
Mona Dohman
Chris Eaton
Lucinda Jesson
Jeremy Miller
Manny Munson-Regala
Nicholas Zerwas
* Team Leader
For additional information, contact:
Manny Munson-Regala
Assistant Commissioner
Minnesota Department of Health
[email protected]
States policies shape where we live, learn, work, and play, and
impact the publics health. While there is evidence
for what works to improve populations health outcomes, many
states lack robust partnerships capable of
mobilizing stakeholders, re-examining existing legal models, and
innovating through statue and regulation. The
Excellence in State Public Health Law (ESPHL) program sought to
strengthen the relationships among health
policy decision-makers in and among selected states and to
increase the ability of these states to understand how
policy could improve the publics health. States determined their
own priorities, and ESPHL did not pre-
determine states outcomes.
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Excessive alcohol use has a devastating impact on individuals,
families, communities, and the Minnesota economy; these costs cut
across state agencies and levels of government. Over the past
several years, the Commissioner of the Department of Health has
engaged in a dialogue with a number of partners in other agencies,
the legislature, and the Governors office to see if there are some
useful approaches to dealing with the problem of binge drinking
that specifically make sense for Minnesota. Building on these
conversations, the Excellence in State Public Health Law (ESPHL)*
program provided a vehicle for the Minnesota team of commissioners,
state legislators, and policy directors in the Governors office to
accelerate the review of evidence of effective interventions, learn
from Minnesota residents about their support of selected
initiatives, discuss policy priorities, and consider the political
feasibility of initiatives in an election year. The team identified
the project goal: reducing binge drinking and its negative
consequences in Minnesota using policies that impact cost,
availability, marketing, drinking and driving, and treatment.
Within the first six months of the project, the team was quickly
able to review the research on effective policy interventions, use
ESPHL technical assistance funds to conduct a statewide poll of
Minnesota residents about their support of selected initiatives,
weigh the political feasibility of various initiatives in an
election year, and decide to focus on enhancing and expanding the
use of ignition interlock. The Minnesota Team consisted of two
senators (Chris Eaton and Jeremy Miller), two representatives
(Susan Allen and Nick Zerwas), the governor's legislative director
(Jamie Tincher), three commissioners (Ed Ehlinger, Department of
Health, Lucinda Jesson, Department of Human Services, and Mona
Dohman, Department of Public Safety), and the Minnesota Department
of Health Assistant Commissioner (Manny Munson-Regala). The
legislators were evenly represented between Republicans and
Democrats. Our team members represented key state agencies impacted
by binge drinking, and helped us assemble a multi-disciplinary team
with different agency perspectives:
* ESPHL, a program of the Aspen Institute Justice & Society
Program, was made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation.
I'm finding that in public
health, we really need to
change the narrative about
what creates health. We have
to change it from medical care
and personal choices being the
main drivers to the fact that it
is policies and systems and the
environment that has the
greatest influence. Were doing
that work to change the
narrative about alcohol use in
our state.
- Dr. Edward Ehlinger,
Commissioner,
Minnesota
Department of Health
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Commissioner of Public Safety: law enforcement perspective, and
part of the Minnesota Toward Zero Deaths effort to lower traffic
fatalities.
Commissioner of Human Services: the agency responsible for most
of the prevention, early identification, and treatment of substance
abuse; it is also the agency that most interacts with the federal
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Commissioner of Health: population-based approach to health,
with a prevention focus on policy, systems, and environmental
change.
Governors Office: policy expertise. One of our biggest successes
was convening a diverse group of people who are knowledgeable about
alcohol abuse and the difficulties of changing policies within the
political climate of Minnesota. The team also had a much better
idea of what public health can do, and hence will be champions of
public health issues in future years. We are already seeing the
results of that.
Partnerships among team members have already facilitated
collaborative work on other policy issues. Moreover, partnerships
with members of other ESPHL state teams have broadened our views on
how to address important public health problems. The time at the
ESPHL retreats and meetings strengthened collaborations among state
agencies and provided a unique opportunity to work with state
legislators across party lines. Public health problems like binge
drinking are often complex and intractable, and the ESPHL project
provided a valuable opportunity to examine possible solutions,
understand the unique
contributions of different state agencies, engage new
stakeholders, and develop new partnerships to work on a solution
(alcohol ignition interlock policy in this case), which often
requires as sustained effort longer than one year. Our work on
utilizing ignition interlocks as part of a strategy to discourage
binge drinking will continue beyond the ESPHL cohort period. What
the legislators on our ESPHL team learned about other projects has
helped shape their view of public health beyond just the issue of
binge drinking. They have become better advocates of a public
health approach to other issues in our state.
ESPHL has applicability for almost
any public policy that has some
health impactsand there are very
few public policies that dontso I
think it should be replicated across
the country on multiple issues.
- Dr. Edward Ehlinger,
Commissioner, Minnesota
Department of Health
