Phoebe Thorpe (00:00):

Good afternoon or good morning, depending on where you're joining us from. My name is Phoebe Thorpe and I serve as the branch chief to the division of STD prevention. Thank you so much for joining us for STD PCHDs, DIS Workforce Supplement webinar. We've been working with many colleagues across CDC to get the supplement released, and we had hoped that it would be ready by the time of this webinar. And I've been told that it will be released soon. So today, we are going to provide a high-level overview of the supplements, and we have saved time at the end as an opportunity for questions and feedback. As we get started, I would like to direct your attention to the bottom of this slide. You might have noticed our new branch name, the Program Development and Evaluation Branch, or PDEB, or as we're calling it PDEB for short.

Phoebe Thorpe (00:57):

Next slide. Thank you. Before we start, let me review a few housekeeping items. This webinar is for the current recipients of STD PCHD and it is being recorded. On your zoom screen at the bottom in the middle, you should see a Q&A option between participants and chat. If you would please use this function to ask questions throughout the presentation, we will answer them in the Q&A portion of the call and any questions we don't get to, we're going to record and answer them and we'll provide them in a Q&A document after the webinar. If you have other comments for other presenters or the attendees, please feel free to use the chat function of the zone. And again, the slides in the webinar are being recorded and they will be available after the webinar at the STD PCHD website.

Phoebe Thorpe (01:53):

Thank you. Next slide. Here's an agenda for today's webinar. First, we'll have opening remarks from Dr. Raul Romaguera, the acting director of DSTDP, and I will give some background about CDCs funding, and then I will turn it over to Jeff Hitt, our outstanding Program Team Lead for an overview of the DIS workforce supplement. As mentioned, we have time at the end for questions. At this point, it's my pleasure to introduce Dr. Raul Romaguera to provide opening remarks.

Raul Romaguera (02:24):

Thank you, Phoebe, and thank you everyone for joining us today. I hope you're as excited as we are to have received these funds to expand the DIS [fore 00:02:36] force. And I hope you join us in this new path to work together in making sure that you all have the support you need for case investigation in contact racing. I would like to thank the administration and the office of the CDC [inaudible 00:02:51] for their support in moving this project forward. I also want to thank Phoebe and all the staff from the Program Development Evaluation Branch, PDEB, for the thorough and swift response when the opportunity knocked on our doors, these happened very quickly. DIS as you all know, have played a key role in the COVID response since the very beginning and the pandemic highlighted how the lack of investment in public health over the [inaudible 00:03:19] hamstrung public health ability to respond to a pandemic and even more common infections like STDs, TB and viral hepatitis. So welcome again, and I'll pass it on to Phoebe.

Phoebe Thorpe (03:35):

Thank you, Raul. And now we'll give a bit of background about the funding CDC is providing. These funds were made possible through the American Rescue Plan Act 2021, HR 1319. This act provides additional relief to address the continued impact of the COVID pandemic on the country, public health, state, and local governments, and to address longstanding deficiencies in the support of public health, the White House in conjunction with HHS directed CDC to use these funds, to bolster the fight against COVID and to build a sustainable public health workforce, including hiring individuals from the communities they serve. Some of the funding will be used by CDC to strengthen the public health workforce up tomorrow, by expanding training programs, including the EIS program, the public health laboratory fellowship, and the PHAPs training programs.

Phoebe Thorpe (04:32):

CDC is also pairing with AmeriCorp to create public health AmeriCorp, to foster the public health at local levels. And in the communities, some additional funding will be invested in public health data infrastructure. Of the 7 billion, over 3 billion is being directed to hire staff at State Tribal Local and Territorial levels. 2 billion is being Disbursed by our sister center, the Center for Preparedness and Response. From their funding, a portion is being used to support hiring nurses, especially school nurses, and another portion to support the hiring of other staff, including doctors, laboratorians, and vaccinators. And 1 billion will go out through STD PCHD, in increments of 200 million per year for the next five years.

Phoebe Thorpe (05:27):

The goal of the 1 billion supplement going out through STD PCHD is to hire and support DIS specialists to strengthen the capacity of state tribal, local and territorial public health departments to mitigate the spread of COVID and other infections. Also these funds are separate and in addition to the STD PCHD funds previously awarded. And now for a high level overview, I'd like to turn the presantation over to Mr. Jeff Hitt, Program Team Lead.

Jeff Hitt (06:02):

Thank you, Phoebe. So first and foremost, this is a workforce expansion supplement and the first and largest priority area is establishing and expanding the DIS workforce. That means assessing your programs current workforce capacity, identifying strategic gaps and developing a plan to recruit and hire core public health staff. This is where the bulk of the effort will be spent, particularly in the early phases of the [inaudible 00:06:30]. The second priority is ensuring that this workforce, both current staff and newly hired DIS, receive training to build strategic and specialized public health competencies. That means training in specific skills like STD or COVID-19 case investigation, but also strategic skills such as resource management communications and systems thinking. And with that investment and training, it's also a priority to support ongoing development and retention of the workforce to ensure this capacity is sustained over time. The third priority is leveraging DIS and other core staff to support outbreak response most urgently for COVID-19, but also for STDs, HIV and emergent infections.

Jeff Hitt (07:15):

This response ready core of DIS hopefully sitting in the STD program should be able to identify and respond to outbreaks in a more timely manner with program managers, working to improve policies and systems to support an agile response infrastructure. The fourth priority, which is at the top of this model, but embedded throughout is continuously working to improve staffing, training and outbreak response efforts. This is an opportunity to really demonstrate the impact that skilled DIS workforce can have on our disease transmission and population level health outcomes. So we hope to work alongside programs in identifying and disseminating best practices and evaluating the impact of this workforce expansion on public health outcomes.

Jeff Hitt (07:58):

So in other words, we hope to use this supplemental funding to ensure that public health programs have the right number of people with the right skills in the right place at the right time. So just a little bit about the availability of the funds, as was mentioned before, it's available for the 59 current recipients of the STD PCHD to award. The floor is a million dollars. It is allocated based on the US census Bureau's Community Resilience Estimates, and another 200 million will be distributed for the next PCHD budget year and for every year, for five years beyond that. So for a total of five years. For the first round of funding the performance period begins the date of the award, which we're expecting at any time. And just as in the aside, we anticipate that you may be getting the award before submitting an application.

Jeff Hitt (09:06):

So look for both the guidance and possibly a budget action coming your way soon. But the performance period begins the date of award and will end December 31st, 2021. So it's operating under the STD PCHD budget period. As with the performance period, the budget period for the supplement begins the date of award and will end December 31st. The purpose of the funds is to build a DIS workforce that can respond to COVID 19 and other infectious diseases. When not working COVID-19 outbreaks, these staff will be available to work STD cases and other infectious Disease. Disease investigation is defined broadly. So it includes case investigation and contact tracing, but also outbreak response, linkage to prevention and treatment case management and oversight. Basically any of the functions that DIS would perform are eligible under this funding and under the goal of this funding. CDC recommends using the social vulnerability index or the community resilience estimates when planning, distribution of resources that we think this is a really good way to address diversity and health equity in this response effort.

Jeff Hitt (10:40):

And just getting a little bit into the allowable costs, the guidance is not finalized, but obviously wages and benefits for DIS and supporting staff are allowable. Administrative support services are allowable and equipment and supplies necessary to support DIS and training and skill building. You'll notice it says new and existing staff. So it is appropriate to provide training and skill building for STD PCHD staff with this new funding. The important part of this is to relate the support services or equipment or supplies or training to the functioning of DIS and their ability to carry out disease investigation activity.

Jeff Hitt (11:36):

And we will work with you to develop an evaluation plan, to assess progress towards intended workforce development outcomes within the first six months of the award. We hope to create evaluations plans that include process and outcome metrics related to staffing, hiring and training, as well as disease intervention measures and disease outcomes related to COVID-19 and other infectious disease response as applicable to the staff hired the supplement. So, the guidance. We are very hopeful that the guidance will be out very shortly. It will be published over grant solutions. We will also send a courtesy copy through the STD PCHD email, distribution lists that will include the supplemental guidance and a work plan template.

Jeff Hitt (12:35):

So the overall application we anticipate being due within 60 days of award. And this of course is assuming that the awards do indeed go out before applications, but that'll include a work plan, a budget narrative and justification, and a few supporting application materials. We are going to be reaching out to arrange planning calls, hopefully in June with each jurisdiction. So we won't be asking you for a detailed project narrative. The purpose of the cause is to get a bigger picture understanding of your current program context, your capacity to absorb and utilize the funds for DIS hiring and to talk one-on-one about some of the opportunities, barriers, the support your jurisdiction might need moving forward. So this will help the CDC side get a jumpstart on providing technical assistance in putting together tailored implementation to resources for the field.

Jeff Hitt (13:44):

So what's in the workplace. If you're familiar with the core STD PCHD work plan, the supplement work plan template should feel familiar. The supplement work plan has two key components. First there's a DIS enumeration and staffing plan tab. And this is related to one year hiring goals of the deliverable, that's outlined in the guidance. We're asking for programs to provide their best available baseline estimates of DIS staffing across programs, as well as project additional staff hiring as part of the supplement. Within the workbook itself, we have embedded detailed guidance to help you enter information on the worksheet. We know that much of this information is dynamic and you might not have all of the estimates readily available, but we hope to use this data to get a baseline understanding of how the funding will impact overall DIS capacity across all programs. The second part of the work plan is pretty straightforward and organized around four priority areas outlined in the implementation framework, there are four tabs, one for each priority area.

Jeff Hitt (14:51):

On each worksheet there's a space to provide information on your program context, to talk about potential challenges, and then to outline key activities your program aims to accomplish in this area over the coming month. Because we recognize that programs will all be starting in a different place. We kept these work plan elements, pretty broad. For each activity. You'll be asked to describe what you're doing when you plan to do it and how you'll measure, whether it's done and successful in. In progress reporting down the line. We've also embedded a status box right into the template. So you can indicate progress on these activities over the time. So for this first submission, you will leave that part in template.

Jeff Hitt (15:37):

Sorry. We're in the process of putting some final touches on the work plan templates, they should be finalized shortly. We'll distribute the templates as soon as they're available via grant note and through STD PCHD distribution. So thank you. Thank you for your patience. The budget justification is straightforward. Again, it's through 12/31/2021. So it is just for this year. The budget justification is similar to budgets that you would normally do, it's just going to be bigger. And finally we're working on some support items, as we mentioned, the work plan templates, Q&A documents, we'll be working around evaluation and we're hoping to get some technical and resource documents together for you. So pay attention to the STD PCHD email, to receive updates and please be ready for those planning calls. So we can hear about your needs.

Jeff Hitt (16:54):

With that, we're going to move into the Q&A, and we have a few questions that we've anticipated. So I'll go through those and then turn it over to one of our project officers, Brittany Johnson, to facilitate the Q&A. But the first is, how does this $200 million STD PCHD supplement fit into the $1 billion investment? Hopefully it's clear by now that the funding is $200 million per year for five years. We're working on future administrative mechanisms to get this money out. You can't anticipate another. Of course the continuation application will be coming out soon and the next year supplement will be coming out too. So it will be a summer of applications.

Jeff Hitt (17:46):

This supplement is focused on COVID-19. Is there a certain percentage of funds that should go to COVID-19 DIS? Is there a percent allocation for STD DIS? So there is not a percentage. You'll see. The language is pretty consistent to say COVID-19 and other infectious disease, and that is as specific as we get. The situation at every health department is going to be different. I think we can expect ebbs and flows in COVID-19 contact tracing response efforts. And so the focus is that comprehensive DIS workforce but no, there are no required percentage. How does the training component of this supplement overlap with existing CDC, DIS training, such as Passport to Partner Service? So we envision this funding as complimentary to the current and new national level investments in DIS training, we encourage programs to leverage CDC developed trainings as part of their new DIS hiring efforts.

Jeff Hitt (19:01):

In addition to that specialized training, this guidance also emphasizes strategic skill building, which I mentioned before. Resource management, emergency response, training, data science, communications, skills that are relevant and applicable to a public health DIS regardless of what home program they're working on. We encourage you to leverage this funding to support training opportunities that will really contributed to our response ready workforce for the future. So I hope those addressed at least some questions, but for now we'll turn it over and you can use the Q&A function in zoom to submit questions. If you want to ask your question live, just raise your hand and we'll get you un-muted. So thank you very much, Brittany. It's all yours.

Brittany (19:49):

Great. Thanks, Jeff. And thank you Phoebe and Raul. And thanks to folks who've contributed questions throughout the webinar so far. I think we can kick it off. There was some questions that came in early on around which positions would be supportive with the supplemental funding? One that came in here from Julia. Can programs use funds to hire admin staff to help administer the grants or related procurements? As well as a question from Julia around does supportive staff include epidemiologists as part of the allowable costs? I'm not sure if Jeff for Phoebe, would you like to answer to that?

Jeff Hitt (20:38):

I'm sorry, I've lost a little bit of the track of the question, because my screen is full of different boxes. But the hiring of epidemiologists is a supportive function. And I think the important part is to relate that function to disease investigation, and how is that furthering the disease investigation goals.

Brittany (21:06):

Thank you. Two questions came in regarding the funding that is going out for this 2021 project period. Beth has asked, will there be an ability to ask for an obligated funds and expanded authority? If we can't spend the entire allowed amount for 2021? And a similar question that came in from another jurisdiction around whether expanded authority will be available for this award.

Phoebe Thorpe (21:36):

So this is Phoebe. I'm going to just repeat back the question to make sure I heard it. The question is about carrying over the funds and expanded authority and yes, the same expanded authority that exists under STD PCHD is under the supplement.

Brittany (21:56):

I see last one's coming in. Similar to questions around positions, is funding for DIS supervisors allowed as part of the supplement.

Jeff Hitt (22:10):

Yes.

Phoebe Thorpe (22:11):

Yes. There is funding for DIS supervisors and that is allowable in this supplement.

Jeff Hitt (22:19):

And I would say that we really consider DIS and their immediate supervisors as the core. So we really include that DIS supervisor function as part of the core disease response effort.

Brittany (22:35):

Question came in from Rachel, can funding be used to support testing?

Phoebe Thorpe (22:44):

So yes, we have included a portion of the funding so that it can be available to use, to support testing and diagnostics.

Brittany (22:57):

Great. And I think there was a good follow on question related to that from Rebecca. Since DIS performed field screening and treatment will allowable costs include test kits and field treatment?

Phoebe Thorpe (23:11):

In the same way that STD PCHD has some caps on the amount that is available for clinical services, there are some caps that will apply to the supplemental funding, but we do have awarding in the supplemental funding that includes testing and diagnostics.

Brittany (23:35):

A clarification question came in from Martin regarding, are the DIS resulting from this [inaudible 00:23:42] or hired from this funding supplement, will they be located in STD programs?

Jeff Hitt (23:55):

That is certainly our hope. Again, the language of the supplement is COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. But it makes sense to seek those staff in STD programs and loaned them to COVID-19 response as needed.

Phoebe Thorpe (24:23):

There's also an expectation just to further what Jeff has said, that the DIS will function in outbreak response situations. And the wording right now is COVID and other infectious diseases. So we expect that they will help with the COVID, but they are maybe other infectious diseases that they could help with if there's an outbreak.

Brittany (24:46):

Great. Thanks for that. A question came in from Christine, does CDC plan to use any of these funds to develop additional trainings for current DIS or will jurisdictions be responsible for finding external trainings for DIS?

Phoebe Thorpe (25:04):

Raul? Do you have a moment? You could say something about that please?

Raul Romaguera (25:09):

In addition to the $1 billion that we are awarding to the PCHD recipients, we also have about $8 million that we will be spending every year for the next five years, to expand access to DIS training. So we are right now working on another supplement with the goal of expanding, and completing the curriculum for DIS training. And I saw another question about training for DIS supervisors. Yes, there will be training for the supervisors.

Brittany (25:44):

Okay, great Raul. Thank you. Another follow-up in that same vein, a question came in from Amelia. And she needs clarifying with the training centers and beginning, will the Passport to Partner Services Tracks be expanded to include other diseases? And I'm not sure Raul, Phoebe, if any of you [crosstalk 00:26:10]

Phoebe Thorpe (26:10):

Yeah. I would defer to Raul on that because as you folks may know that some of the training is handled by a different part of our division.

Raul Romaguera (26:19):

I'd like to say that one other aspect of this initiative is that we're going to be launching the DIS certification. And as some of you may know, part of the DIS certification was to make sure DIS are cross-trained among or across multiple diseases. So it the expectation that the DIS training will cover multiple diseases.

Brittany (26:43):

Great. A question that came in from Chris will clinical service support be allowed with this funding?

Jeff Hitt (26:55):

So similar to the STD-

Brittany (26:56):

Raul [inaudible 00:26:57]

Jeff Hitt (26:59):

Are you asking about [inaudible 00:27:00] support or clinical services?

Brittany (27:05):

The question is clinical service support.

Raul Romaguera (27:08):

I mean, the idea like Jeff said earlier, the overall goal here, is to expand the DIS workforce, and will also allow health departments to hire staff that will support the work of DIS. So to the extent of that DIS are referring services or patients for follow-up services I would say probably, yes.

Brittany (27:36):

Thank you. Two questions came in overlapping here a little bit. One of them from Glenn, can we put people who are already DIS onto these funds? And another question of, can existing staff currently funded on TCHD also be funded on this supplemental funding?

Phoebe Thorpe (27:58):

Yes.

Jeff Hitt (27:59):

Yes, they can. They will leave you with a budget gap on your STD PCHD funds, but the administration of those funds is [inaudible 00:28:14]

Phoebe Thorpe (28:16):

I also saw a question about how much will be allocated per state. And there was an email that was sent out on Friday afternoon with the information to look for where on the CDC website, there's a listing for each state, for the five-year total that they will get. And I will ask if one of my staff could put that link in the... thank you, Brittany. Brittany's put it in the link. Just look for the DIS workforce. That's the keywords when you're looking.

Brittany (28:57):

Right. And another question came in what happens after the five years? Should states plan to observe the cost after five years or... It was from Alicia and for Martin, is funding guaranteed beyond five years?

Raul Romaguera (29:16):

I can take that one. Funding is not guaranteed, beyond five years. That's why we need to make sure that you all work closely with our CDC stuff. To make sure that you can document what impact these funds had on improving public health outcomes, specifically improving STD related outcomes. So we are planning to be doing evaluation of these efforts to document what impact funding actually had. And we hope that if we can show significant improvements that maybe, there'll be an effort by Congress and others to keep this funding beyond five years.

Phoebe Thorpe (30:00):

And I saw that there's a question from one person who said they were confused that the funding started in 1/1/2022. No, there is funding that's coming now a portion of your 200 million it will be released soon. And then another portion is going to come in the next funding cycle for STD PCHD, which starts January 1st, 2022. I hope that clarifies the question.

Brittany (30:33):

Great. Thank you, Phoebe. And then there was another question that came in just for clarification. We will have the PCHD year four work plan, the supplemental work plan for 2021 and an application for the supplemental work plan for 2022 to fill out and submit this summer. I'll go ahead and take that one just as a person who has been working on the work plan templates. There will be the year four work plan as part of your continuation due at the end of August. What we're trying to do with these supplemental templates is have them build upon each other. So you'll have basically one work plan that will grow with the first round of submission of activities you're proposing to carry out through the end of this year. And then you would just continue expanding that same work plan document as part of your submission for 2022, because we recognize that a lot of these efforts are going to be carried over into the subsequent project.

Brittany (31:27):

All right. We have a question that came in from Susan that this is wonderful to build the DIS workforce. I think we all agree. Can the [old 00:31:41] formula include cost of living, distant delivery of services to very remote areas and travel costs, which are very high and [inaudible 00:31:50].

Phoebe Thorpe (31:55):

Raul, I'm going to defer to you.

Raul Romaguera (32:00):

I would say yes, but can you repeat the question Brittany? So I make sure I-

Brittany (32:04):

Yeah. This question is, can the award formula included the cost of living, distant delivery of services to remote areas and travel costs?

Raul Romaguera (32:16):

I'm confused by the first part, when there saying about the formula, but the funding allocation that you're receiving, yes, you can use it to cover travel costs for your DIS services, and transportation afterwards.

Jeff Hitt (32:30):

Yeah, but the formula is based on the community resilience estimates.

Raul Romaguera (32:35):

Yeah, there'll be no additional adjustments to the numbers that were published in the link that Brittany posted.

Brittany (32:48):

Okay. There is a question that's come in from Diana. If my state legislature has banned acceptance of American Rescue Plan Funding, can we still receive this funding?

Phoebe Thorpe (33:05):

I think we need to check on that and get back to them.

Brittany (33:10):

Great. All right. Question from to [Tahira 00:33:20] can funding be used for purchase or lease of mobile testing units?

Raul Romaguera (33:32):

Do I take that one? I would say in our experience, we don't support the purchase of mobile vans or equipment similar to mobile vans. I think the goal here is to expand the workforce, not to expand the locations for the DIS offered services.

Brittany (33:55):

Thanks Raul. And another question from Martha, what is the plan to ensure the equitable hiring of staff who accurately and proportionately reflect the intended beneficiaries in affected communities?

Raul Romaguera (34:15):

So in the guidance we have included and direct the states to use either the same community resilience estimates, or the CDC developed Social Vulnerability Index SVI, when they're allocating the funds across their state or jurisdiction, I should say.

Brittany (34:41):

Thank you, Phoebe. A question that came in, I think we've clarified this a bit, but just to reiterate, can a clinical nurse be hired to support [inaudible 00:34:57] DIS functions there's working with healthcare providers to implement recommended CDC treatment guidelines?

Jeff Hitt (35:11):

Well, I think the important part would be to relate that to how is that improving your disease investigation outcomes and when I first read that I don't immediately see the tight connection to improving DIS outcomes, but the important part is to make that case.

Brittany (35:41):

Another question that's come in from Glen, can we pay for DIS training stats?

Phoebe Thorpe (35:53):

I'm just going to ask as a point of clarification, this question is, can we pay for staff to come in and train the DIS? I think [crosstalk 00:36:05]

Brittany (36:06):

Yeah. Glen, feel free to chime into the chat if there's a different interpretation.

Phoebe Thorpe (36:12):

And yes, if the training relates to the further function of the DIS, yes. Of course, if there's training that's already exists, and it's been developed by CDC. We would direct you to use that training when possible. And we know that not only do we have CDC training developed for STDs, but there's also a training that's developed for HIV prevention and hepatitis and TB.

Brittany (36:46):

Great. Thank you Phoebe. And I think that dovetails with a question that came in from Stacy, can this funding be used to support DIS for HIV and hepatitis C in addition to COVID and STD? I see lots of nodding.

Jeff Hitt (37:02):

Yeah, it can. And again, it's, COVID-19 and other infectious diseases and the ideas that the DIS have a home program, we hope that's STD programs, but obviously it can be shared across multiple programs.

Brittany (37:24):

Right. And another follow-up on that question from Mercy, can this funding to used for DIS, HIV care linkage and re-engagement activities.

Raul Romaguera (37:36):

Yes. [crosstalk 00:37:37]

Jeff Hitt (37:39):

Connection to treatment is one of those things that DIS do. And it's a DIS function. And so how you cover those functions is a product of your own situation rather than, a rubric from us.

Brittany (37:59):

A question that came in from Brandon, is this funding meant to supplant federal money given to states for COVID-19 activities?

Raul Romaguera (38:06):

No.

Jeff Hitt (38:10):

No. But it does last longer than a lot of the other funding that is coming out for COVI-19. So there's going to be some interesting dynamics in the next few years.

Brittany (38:27):

Thanks Jeff. A question that came in, can this funding be used to support mobile app development and or system level solutions.

Raul Romaguera (38:38):

Yes.

Phoebe Thorpe (38:40):

Yes.

Jeff Hitt (38:41):

And again, it's important to link that to DIS outcome.

Brittany (38:53):

We've got a question from, Jonathan. We've answered a few variations of this. Are staff required to be located in STD programs? And what about partnerships with clinical programs?

Raul Romaguera (39:13):

I'm assuming that partnership with clinical programs is that DIS may be assigned to a clinical partner of the health department. Yes. I think that's appropriate.

Brittany (39:33):

A comment that came in from Edina just to highlight that she thought it would be helpful to hear not necessarily now, but in the near future about how local health departments are organizing their staff between STD programs and communicable disease programs and sort of what the landscape looks like. So putting that suggestion out there, I think that's one that we all share as well. And hopefully with our supplement planning goals, we will be able to get a little bit of a better understanding of where programs are starting with this 1 million planning to expand the workforce. Okay. Another question that came in will staff coming through this announcement be expected to assist with outbreak investigations or disease response funded through the ELC or food net?

Phoebe Thorpe (40:28):

It's a very good question. And we're hoping that programs will coordinate with ELC funding and also the CPR funding and our funding to best address the needs in their communities.

Brittany (40:47):

Well, thank you, Phoebe. And reiterating a question that came in from Christina. Our state allows [free 00:40:54] delivery therapy, will the purchase of treatment or medication be allowed with this funding?

Phoebe Thorpe (41:03):

In the same way that there's a 10% rider on the STD PCHD, there's a 10% application to this funding also.

Brittany (41:16):

A question in from Sophia, will there be a separate evaluation of monitoring guidance with this supplement? And will the metrics and evaluation include STD related measures given that this funding is based within the PCHD grant? Jeff, if you maybe want to take that one.

Jeff Hitt (41:38):

So we will be working with you on an evaluation plan and we'll put out something in the form of guidance or assistance to structure that. I think reading the question again, we do expect there to be some STD related measures. And I think that we are looking at disease investigation measures across diseases, depending on how these these staff are deployed.

Raul Romaguera (42:18):

Brittany, can I add something to that? Because if you and your staff are supporting DIS [inaudible 00:42:25] in other programs within the health department, you will be expected to report on those activities thorough the PCHD brand.

Brittany (42:42):

The question in from Rachel, will there be a cost to the DIS certification that we can cover with these funds?

Raul Romaguera (42:50):

Yes.

Phoebe Thorpe (42:52):

Yes.

Raul Romaguera (42:54):

We're hoping we're going to invest in launching the DIS certification program. And the expectation is that a newly hired DIS would be eligible who go through the [BS 00:43:07] certification. And if there is a cost, these funds could be used to pay for that.

Brittany (43:20):

All right. Questions are coming in, I like it. All right. So a question in from Cassie, is there any differentiation between the DIS opportunity within the preparedness funding? So the $2 billion award versus the DIS bonding through DCHD?

Phoebe Thorpe (43:43):

I'm sorry, could you repeat the first part of the question? Any difference in their training or?

Brittany (43:47):

Any difference in just the DIS that are proposed as allowable staff with the preparedness funding award versus the DIS outlined in this supplement?

Phoebe Thorpe (44:02):

Not that I know of, but of course, if there is a little bit indifference between asking about COVID and asking about STDs and HIV and TB, so the way they function would be the same, but the knowledge base in the training that they would need might differ.

Raul Romaguera (44:23):

And I would add, that the DIS highers through the [inaudible 00:44:27] funds will be higher for three years. And our program is a five-year program. So there's an opportunity to train and maybe we think for a longer time DIS through our program.

Brittany (44:41):

Thank you Raul [inaudible 00:44:45]. A question in from Amanda, can funding be used to support positions to perform high level partner services, quality assurance, and trainings?

Phoebe Thorpe (45:03):

I think this is a question about the type of training. And I would say again, if the training relates back to the role and the work of the DIS, then yes, it would be supported.

Jeff Hitt (45:15):

And that sounds like those strategic skills that we were talking about.

Brittany (45:19):

Yeah. And I would add in there for quality assurance, if those are kind of Epi or review focused roles in your health department, but they're directly related to DIS activities and outcomes. I think those would fall in scope there. A question in, are there any expectations that state health departments funnel this funding to local county health departments?

Jeff Hitt (45:51):

We strongly encourage you to allocate funds to local and tribal entities as appropriate. Again, you can use the social vulnerability index or the community resilience estimates to structure those if you like.

Brittany (46:12):

A question in from Tracy, can the funding be used to conduct internet partners services by DIS?

Jeff Hitt (46:22):

Yes.

Phoebe Thorpe (46:23):

We do have...

Brittany (46:28):

We have like it when there's a one word answer. All right, great.

Jeff Hitt (46:32):

Yeah I like that 1.

Brittany (46:36):

A question in from Genevive, will jurisdictions be allowed to issue RFPs to local community-based organizations or other groups to start or increase the DIS workforce for cluster or outbreak response?

Jeff Hitt (46:52):

I would say that sounds like an appropriate use of funds. So a there's... Yes.

Brittany (47:04):

A question from Courtney, a clarification is the award amount from the website a five-year total? And the answer to that is yes. So that's of the $1 billion appropriation. So to get your annual award, you're going to divide that by five. A question from Alicia, can this funding be used to support enhanced surveillance detection?

Jeff Hitt (47:38):

That's a tough one. Again, if it's promoting a better DIS outcomes then yes. But you would probably want to make that link explicit in your budget justification and in your work plan.

Raul Romaguera (48:01):

And I would be concerned, I would not say it's a flat Yes, because it is not one has surveillance for COVID or other infectious diseases. All their funds to do those efforts. So I would say it's not a yes across the board.

Mary (48:18):

[inaudible 00:48:18] remember that some of them may have a funding gap that has to be [inaudible 00:48:23]-

Brittany (48:22):

Mary, I'm not sure if you're trying to speak, you're a little bit fuzzy there.

Mary (48:32):

I'm sorry. I was just saying that to remember that there is likely to be a budget gap as part of your STD PCHD funding and some of the functions that are part of the core STD PCHD grant can be better addressed using that funding.

Brittany (48:45):

[inaudible 00:48:45]

Jeff Hitt (48:45):

Good point.

Brittany (48:48):

Okay. Question came in from Karen. You all have mentioned COVID in the presentation today. What can we expect in terms of having to report on specific COVID performance methods?

Raul Romaguera (49:04):

Very likely.

Brittany (49:09):

Yeah. And I would just add in there, I think we're aware of COVID reporting that many states are doing through the Epi-lab capacity cooperative agreement. And we'll be trying as part of that evaluation performance plan development to try and make sure that we're aligning those measures where we can and making sure that there isn't too much for [inaudible 00:49:28].

Raul Romaguera (49:30):

Yeah. I would say to the extent that the funds were used to support COVID within your jurisdiction, you will be expected to report.

Brittany (49:48):

A question in from Lindsay, Job descriptions for DIS differ by state or jurisdiction. Is there going to be a definition of what you mean by DIS or can we defer to our local job descriptions?

Phoebe Thorpe (50:07):

It's a very good question. We tried to define DIS by the role that they perform.

Raul Romaguera (50:20):

I would say that also as part of the DIS certification process, we identify what are the competencies that DIS must have, so we can make that information available.

Brittany (50:36):

Freshmen from Princeton, DIS be assigned or embedded in non-local health department, clinical settings, such as emergency departments or correction facilities?

Jeff Hitt (50:48):

Yes.

Brittany (50:52):

Great. And Elizabeth followed up with that to clarify, could you support [inaudible 00:50:55] DIS in emergency departments? Yes. Is the answer to that as well? A question from Jessica, is there existing guidance from other uses of the community resilience estimates for funding formulas, for us to use in allocating to local health jurisdictions within our project [inaudible 00:51:18] And if not, can we get that type of guidance relatively quickly from PSDP?

Jeff Hitt (51:30):

That is a very tough question. And I think one that we'll have to cogitate on some. I'm not immediately aware of what resources may be available to implement the community resilience estimates, but we're digging into that now.

Brittany (51:52):

Yeah. And I'll chime in as someone who did the ins and outs of the community resilience estimates recently. There are some pretty good are materials and resources available on the census website, as well as sort of county level breakdowns of those community resilience values. So that's something that we can definitely help jurisdictions [inaudible 00:52:16] and send out some links to those resources and try and help facilitate again allocation funds proportionately.

Phoebe Thorpe (52:25):

Hi Brittany, I don't know if you saw that. I think we have maybe a hand raised.

Brittany (52:32):

Sure. Yes. We have a raised hand from Nikki Mayans. Deanna, I'm not sure. Can you shift that if she is allowed to speak?

Deanne (52:47):

That's not intentional.

Brittany (52:50):

All right. [inaudible 00:52:53]

Deanne (52:54):

Wanted to make sure you knew we weren't ignoring you?

Brittany (52:58):

Yes. Follow up from [inaudible 00:52:59] just to reiterate, to re-arrange and re-share the DIS competencies from the certification process. That's certainly an action item we can add to our list. I know there was a good job task analysis associated with that that [inaudible 00:53:11] be helpful as well. So a question from Craig will programs have to specify which outcomes for performance measures are attributed to this funding versus DIS measures and other COVID fundings, such as ELC.

Jeff Hitt (53:28):

That's a very good question. I think one that we're still going to have to work to tease out. There is going to be an expectation to report on what the funds have accomplished. There's always that thread of in our reporting. And so we may have to have you tease some of that out in certain situations, but we're not really completely clear on exactly what we're going to be requiring in terms of reports.

Brittany (54:19):

Let's see here a question from Bourbon, will there be communities of practice and can we pay for mental health and peer support services to workers, especially frontline client facing positions?

Phoebe Thorpe (54:35):

Raul, I'm going to defer to you on that one.

Jeff Hitt (54:38):

Yeah. I would say yes that the big communities of practice, and we can talk about that and how we put implement those communities of practice later on. Can you provide support to make sure your DIS remain healthy and ready with [inaudible 00:54:52] Yes.

Brittany (54:56):

Great. And I see we've got about two minutes left in the hour. I know there are still some open questions. I don't think we're going to get through all of them, but we are logging them all down and we'll plan on preparing the answers to those and sending them out to you all after the webinar. Just scrolls through-

Mary (55:14):

Brittany I've included the length of the job [inaudible 00:55:18].

Brittany (55:20):

Great. Thank you, Mary. Yeah. And for those of you in the chat box, Mary did drop in that job task analysis information. And one last question from Stephanie around paying, actually, is there any timeline update on the CS funding from the ELC mechanism as for areas of applied that might impact what their budgets are for this DIS supplements?

Raul Romaguera (55:48):

I believe announcements will be made sometime in June, I don't have a set date. But yes, it will be happening soon.

Brittany (56:02):

All right. I think a [inaudible 00:56:04]. I'm just scrolling through some of these questions here. If there are any others. One from Alexis can funds be used to support office space and other essential DIS equipment. I think that's a one word answer.

Jeff Hitt (56:24):

Yes.

Brittany (56:24):

Yes. All right. Great. Okay. I think with limit, less than an hour, I'll turn it back over to Raul, Phoebe and Jeff to close out the webinar.

Jeff Hitt (56:38):

I just want to say thank you to everyone. And we hope that we'll have more information very, very soon for you. And thank you for sticking with us and your patience as we worked through all this.

Phoebe Thorpe (56:53):

Yes, very much. Thank you for joining us. We, I hope that this has been a good use of your time and that we will continue to try to keep updates going out through the STD PCHD emails. So please keep an eye out for them. And as always, if you have questions, send them to the email box or ask your project officer. Thank you very much.

Raul Romaguera (57:16):

Thank you everyone. And I also want to remind you that we want to work in partnership with you. So stay in close communication with your project officers as you implement this project. Thank you everyone.