Title: Message from the CHPPD Chair: Communicating for a vision
Author:
Section/SPIG: Community Health Planning and Policy Development
Issue Date:
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Spring Celebration
Photo credit: Rohinton K. Irani |
Welcome to spring . . . a time of new life, new opportunities and new commitments . . . it is also a time for spring cleaning, spring gardening and spring rains. As the Chair of the Community Health Planning and Policy Development Section (CHPPD), I find myself torn between the enthusiasm of the season and the reality of responsibilities. Such is the dilemma for our volunteer efforts as we pursue the vision of what could be while weighed down by the daily pragmatism of what is. How do we balance our time?
For me, “vision” is simply a more sophisticated term for “dreams” . . . and without dreams, we are without purpose, and without purpose, we are without motivation. It is all too easy to be overcome by the workaday world, and allow our time to be consumed by urgencies and details. Many of us have been faced with trying to “do more with less” as budgets have been painfully reduced and workloads increased. For example, my planning and regulatory office has lost over 70 percent of its staffing while we now produce more than 200 percent more revenue than just five years ago. The vision dims as the back bows.
And yet, a clear plan for the future is more important now than ever before in order to guide new policy development at all levels. In health care, we are faced with heightened expectations while struggling with diminishing resources, personally and professionally. The misguided path of competition in health delivery needs to be replaced by a reinvestment in cooperation and caring. As planners, this is our time to step forward with a restored vision.
At the risk of repeating myself, communication has been repeatedly discussed as one of the most important things that we can work on this year. This takes many forms from local and state interaction to annual face-to-face conference contacts. At CHPPD, we want to continue to develop our valuable communication vehicles such as the newsletter, e-mail exchanges, listserv dialogue and Web site service. Member input is an important way to help us respond to needs, so it is vital that we hear what you have to say and how we say it.
Stay in touch, and drop me line if you have ideas or just want to leave a greeting: <macquest@mchsi.com>. Communication continues to be a two-way street and a scenic drive, and our dreams only become visions when we work on them together.