Instructor Guide for Module 3 Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Introductions and Pretest A Brief History of Public Health Modern Public Health: Tools and Functions Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Public Health Ethics Posttest and Course Evaluation Developed by: Continuing Education, School of Public Health, University at Albany and the Professional Development Program, Rockefeller College, University at Albany Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Acknowledgements The development of these training materials was made possible by support from the New York State Department of Health and the New York New Jersey Public Health Training Center, which is funded through a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Project Coordinator Carol Young, PhD, Continuing Education, School of Public Health, University at Albany Content Experts Robert Burhans NYSDOH David O. Carpenter UAlbany Andrew Doniger Monroe Co. (NY) DOH William Leavy UAlbany Patrick Trapp NYSDOH Carol D. Young UAlbany Vicki Zeldin NYSDOH NYNJ Public Health Training Center Team Pennsylvania and Ohio Public Health Training Center Research, Design, and Editing Cheryl Reeves, MS/MLS, Continuing Education, School of Public Health, University at Albany Instructional Technologies Unit, Professional Development Program, Rockefeller College, University at Albany Contact Information New York New Jersey Public Health Training Center http://www.nynj-phtc.org/ Carol Young, PhD School of Public Health, University at Albany One University Place Rensselaer, NY 12144-3456 Phone: (518) 402-0330 Fax: (518) 402-1137 E-mail: cyoung@albany.edu Web: http://www.albany.edu/sph/ page 2 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health How To Use This Guide This Instructor Guide accompanies the MS PowerPoint slides for Module 3 Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health. It contains the slides, notes, key points, and additional references for the instructor’s presentation of Module 3. Instructors are encouraged to modify the material to suit the specific audience and/or location of instruction. Specific instructions on how to modify PowerPoint presentations can be found in the Course Guide, which should be used in conjunction with each of the Instructor Guides. All materials may be downloaded from the comprehensive curriculum source page at http://www.nynj-phtc.org/intro/. The entire course (Modules 0-4) is intended to be presented in six-hours. Module 3 is designed to take 60 minutes. Before you Begin Read the Course Guide for Instructors, which explains how to o Organize the entire day’s presentation o Create student guides o Use PowerPoint software Teaching tips, preparation checklists, and many other details are also provided. The Course Guide is found under “Other Materials” on the source page. Read the Instructor Guide for each module to become familiar with the content and flow. Look for notes and slides that require examples specific to your own training situation (i.e., audience, health department, location). Determine whether a module’s generic presentation should be modified for your specific audience. Additional slides may be found under “Other Materials” in the file “Additional Slides.” Review all activities in this module. Make sure you have materials to hand out to participants. page 3 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Module 3: Organization and Legal Basis of PH Slide 1 Key Points: Slide 2 The focus of this module o Explain the legal basis for our activities in public health o Address core legal competencies for front line professional staff Does not address specific state laws or state organizational structures. Key Points: Legal responsibilities and limitations o What obligations does the public health professional have? o What limitations are imposed on public health professionals? o What legal liabilities does public health work have when balancing the rights of the individual and obligations for public safety? Organizational Structure o Sources and scope of authority for public health laws How your job fits into the big picture (combines the first two objectives) page 4 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Slide 3 Key Points: Inherent in public health is the tension between individual rights and the protection of the larger community. Ask group for examples: o Smoking vs. indoor air o Fluoridation and vaccination o Motorcycle helmets and speed limits o Physician-assisted suicide Public Health law balances this tension. Next 3 slides are stories of these tensions See “Background Materials” at the end of this Instructor Guide. Slide 4 Key Points: Stories that tell the power invoked to protect public health: o Tell the story of TYPHOID MARY Consider these personal freedoms: o o o Freedom of Movement: Quarantine Isolation Procedures Bodily Freedom: Mandatory Vaccination Screening for Tuberculosis Privacy: Disease Reporting Disease Notification See “Background Materials” at the end of this Instructor Guide. Source of Graphic: Work Projects Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project, poster created between 1936 and 1941. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, [LC-USZC2-1594 DLC (color film copy slide)]. page 5 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Slide 5 Key Points: Stories that tell the power invoked to protect public health: o Tell a story related to one of these public health responsibilities (vaccination, mandatory reporting, inspection, licensure) Consider these personal freedoms: o o o Freedom of Movement: Quarantine Isolation Procedures Bodily Freedom: Mandatory Vaccination Screening for Tuberculosis Privacy: Disease Reporting/Notification See “Background Materials” at the end of this Instructor Guide. Source of Graphic: Work Projects Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project [poster created about 1940]. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, [LC-USZC2-5208 DLC (color film copy slide)]. Slide 6 Key Points: Stories that tell the power invoked to protect public health: o Tell a story related to public nuisance (e.g., see photo), OR o Ask group for stories/examples about a public nuisance Legal Point: Public health has broad powers to address public nuisances that threaten the public’s health. Photo: Image of Bailiff Morris Wilson taking cats from the home of Anna and Isabella Patton. Circuit court bailiffs collected 50 cats that lived in the house. Anna Patton is standing in the street, by a Quaker Oats crate, and Isabella Patton is coming out of their home, carrying a box. The Patton home was located at 7359 South Kenwood Avenue in the South Shore community area of Chicago, Illinois. This photonegative taken by a Chicago Daily News photographer was published in the newspaper on November 9, 1915. Courtesy of Library of page 6 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, [DN0065343, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society]. See “Background Materials” at the end of this Instructor Guide. page 7 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Slide 7 Key Points: Slide 8 Authorities AND limits on authority have the same legal basis o Public Health Departments have many responsibilities, powers, and extensive authority o Courts have interpreted the state “police power” broadly PH officials must weigh an individual’s rights against society’s need for protection o Public Health officials have limits placed on their powers o Tension between some public health requirements and the freedoms they affect o The individual, with certain civil rights and liberties, has the right to challenge public health laws Key Points: Basic components of due process fairness are: o NoticeGiving adequate information about legal requirements to the persons affected, so that they can avoid the consequences of noncompliance. Laws must be written clearly and precisely. o An opportunity to be heardIntended actions must have an opportunity to be challenged Ask group for examples of Due Process OR give examples o Example: A public health agency cannot revoke a nursing home license without giving the owner notice of the action and, under most circumstances, an opportunity to challenge the action before the license is revoked. In an emergency situation the agency may unilaterally revoke a license, but must then give the owner an opportunity to challenge the action in a later hearing.) See “Background Materials” at the end of this Instructor Guide. page 8 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Slide 9 Key Points: Unless a meaningful factual difference exists between two activities, two persons, or two situations, the Constitution requires that they be treated alike. Government and the legal system cannot arbitrarily discriminate. Applies to both the law and its application. Ask group for examples of Equal Protection OR give examples o Example: In 1886, the Supreme Court held that a local ordinance prohibiting the construction of wooden laundries without a license—although a valid safety measure on its face—had been implemented in a way that violated the equal protection clause. Almost all Chinese applicants were denied licenses, while nonChinese applicants routinely received them [Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, (1886)]. See “Background Materials” at the end of this Instructor Guide. Slide 10 Key Points: Ask group for examples of Public Health’s Protection of the Population OR give examples o Immunization requirements o Fluoridation o Compulsory HIV testing o Helmet and seat-belt use laws o Indoor smoking bans Ask group for examples of the Individual’s Right to Privacy OR give examples o Legalized birth control -- Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) o Legalized abortion -- Roe v. Wade (1973) See “Background Materials” at the end of this Instructor Guide. page 9 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Slide 11 Key Points: Summarize due process and equal protection Remember that the public health professional IS government. Photo courtesy of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“November and December 2003 are Water Security Month”) at http://epa.gov/ogwdw/index.html Slide 12 Slide 13 See “Background Materials” at the end of this Instructor Guide. Key Points: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) oversees the major federal public health agencies. HHS and its subsidiaries provide: o Primary federal funding to each state. o Difficult or prohibitively expensive services. The newest addition (Federal Register: January 15, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 10), Notices, Page 1980) is the Office of Public Health Preparedness (OPHP), “to direct activities of the Department of Health and Human Services relating to protecting the civilian population from acts of bioterrorism and other public health emergencies.” page 10 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Slide 14 Key Points: Home rule authority o To avoid the need for specific authorization each time a new need arises, most states—either through legislation or by constitutional amendment—have given local governmental units the right of local selfgovernance, to make decisions concerning their own welfare. o Home rule allows local government to carry out public health and other functions without having to seek legislative authority anew for each specific activity. o Without constitutional or statutory home rule authority, cities and town governments would not be empowered with their own rule-making functions. Examples of home rule authority: o Courts upheld the New York City health department's authority to require window guards in high-rise residences. o San Francisco declared a “public health emergency” and authorized needleexchange programs that were otherwise illegal under state law. See “Background Materials” at the end of this Instructor Guide. Slide 15 Key Points: Give example of Governmental Roles – e.g., Tuberculosis (TB) o o o Federal Government (CDC) Provides funding to states to control TB Performs research on strategies for testing and treatment of TB State Health Departments Provides funding to local communities to control TB Trains health care professionals Local Health Departments page 11 of 21 Receives reports of new cases from hospitals, physicians, and Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health labs Tracks the care of TB patients Finds contact to cases and provides preventative treatment to the contacts before they become ill See “Background Materials” at the end of this Instructor Guide. page 12 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Slide 16 Key Points: Local Health Departments have Special Emergency Powers o In many ways the local health commissioner or board of health is the most powerful entity in local government. o In most communities, the board of health can close down a facility or stop community activities to protect the health of the public without a court order. o Local boards can order quarantines and isolation of patients infected with communicable diseases. o Local governments have the authority to declare “a state of emergency” to enable the government and other agencies to respond effectively in emergencies (e.g., to close the roads to traffic after a windstorm that knocks down power poles and tress). Slide 17 Slide 18 Key Points: Any society’s laws serve the functions of social control and conflict resolution. You are part of the governmental system of laws, rules, and regulations. Law is an important tool in achieving public health goals. Public health problems often can be resolved without having to resort to confrontation. page 13 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Slide 19 Key Points: A strong hand is the last resort. o Explain the reason for the regulation. o Find areas of agreement. o Violators are not criminals. When there is a threat to health or safety, take action. o If you see a dangerous circumstance, you have police authority. Your first response should not be to litigate. o Reach cooperative solutions to problems through negotiation. Effective communication is essential to fulfilling the core public health functions of assessment, policy development, and assurance. Ask group for examples of alternative solutions to situations. See “Background Materials” at the end of this Instructor Guide. Slide 20 Key Points: Your power and authority to protect the population come from the laws. o Power comes from the laws. o Regulations come from the laws. Legalities and ethics overlap page 14 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Slide 21 Key Points: Slide 22 Know the code, rule, regulation, or ordinance you enforce. o What is your code? o What does it say? o What are the requirements? Seek assistance if you think an action may provoke legal implications. Go to the “higher ups.” Educational role: tell people how to abide by the code. ENFORCE THE CODE AND NOT YOUR OPINION. Although you have legal responsibilities and powers, your work is in the public’s interest – you have the public’s trust. Key Points: Anybody can be sued, but the courts have traditionally sided with public health officials. o Keep the State informed. o Behave in a professional manner. o Act in good faith. Give an example of being sued o page 15 of 21 A local PH department did not permit a rock concert to be held in a farmer’s field. Because the concert’s promoters had already marketed the event, the sanitarian and the health department were both sued by the promoter. Would you rather be sued by a rock promoter or by the parents of a dead rock ‘n roll fan? Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Slide 23 Key Points: Hand out a case study (Handout 3.1) Use this or another case study to explore legality issues. A farmer in your county owns five dogs in addition to several barn cats and livestock. A raccoon was found in the cow barn at 6 pm when the family entered to start the evening chores. One of the dogs was injured, and one of the barn cats killed in a fight with the raccoon. The raccoon subsequently tested positive for rabies. It is not known whether the other four dogs or any of the barn cats were exposed to rabies, although the other dogs were involved in chasing the raccoon around in the barn. Therefore, the risk of exposure was high. None of the domestic animals is vaccinated for rabies. A large animal veterinarian making a routine visit to the farm two days later checked the cows for wounds and found minor scratches on a couple of them. However, the cause of the scratches was unclear (the pastures and barnyard were mostly fenced with barbed wire, which the cows sometimes jostled each other against). Current law requires that animals not actively vaccinated for rabies that have been exposed to a potentially rabid animal be quarantined for six months at the owner’s expense, or euthanized. The farmer refuses to put any of the dogs in quarantine or to turn them over to the County Health Department. Complicating matters further, you have heard that one of the dogs involved in chasing the raccoon is a housedog which sleeps on the farmer’s bed at night. What is your response? page 16 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Background Materials and References Slide 3 Background Historic “tension” between protecting a population’s health and preserving the rights of the individual. Segue review from Module 1 -- “History of Public Health” o Laws and regulations to protect the health of the community are found in virtually all civilizations, Eastern and Western o Tribal Rules passed on through oral traditions o Chinese Empire o Bible (Leviticus spells out the rabbi’s power to evict lepers and demolish their housing) o Koran (detailed food codes) o Roman Senate Slide 4 Background Story of Typhoid Mary Mary Mallon was a carrier of typhoid. She was a cook in a house in Mamaroneck, N.Y., for less than two weeks in the year 1900 when the residents came down with typhoid. She moved to employment in Manhattan the next year, and members of that family developed fevers and diarrhea, and the laundress died. She went to work for a lawyer, until seven of the eight household members developed typhoid. Mary spent months helping to care for the people she made sick, but of course the contact made many of them worse. In 1904, she took another position on Long Island. Within two weeks, four of ten family members were hospitalized with typhoid. She changed employment. Three more households infected. In 1906, the strange outbreaks of cases in New York attracted the suspicion of Dr. George Soper. Typhoid usually strikes in poor, unsanitary conditions; cases among the rich (and sanitary) were unusual. He discovered that the common element was an unmarried, heavyset Irish cook, about forty years old. No one knew her whereabouts. After each case she left and gave no forwarding address. Dr Soper traced her to an active outbreak in a Park Avenue penthouse--two servants were hospitalized and the daughter of the family died. Soper interviewed Mary, and suggested there might be a connection between the dishes she served and the outbreaks of typhoid. She cursed at him. He requested a stool sample, and she threatened him with a meat cleaver. Finally, police and the New York health commissioner arrested her. She went kicking and screaming. Under questioning, she said she rarely washed her hands when cooking and felt there was no need--she didn't consider herself a threat. Cultures of Mary's urine and stools (taken forcibly with the help of prison matrons) revealed that her gallbladder was teeming with typhoid salmonella. She refused to have her gallbladder extracted or to give up her occupation as cook, maintaining stubbornly that she did not carry any disease. It's interesting that the state was quite willing to pay for cutting out her gall bladder--an operation that usually had no effect but carried a real risk of killing her--but didn't even consider disability relief or payments for not cooking. page 17 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health Authorities confined her to a cottage in the Bronx, where she lived and ate alone. She was effectively imprisoned without trial. She worked at Riverside Hospital as a laundress. In 1910, promising to remain a laundress and never return to cooking, Mary was released. She changed her name to Mary Brown and got a job as a cook. For the next five years, she went through a series of kitchens, spreading illness and death, keeping one step ahead of the frustrated Dr. Soper. In 1915, a serious epidemic of typhoid erupted among the staff of New York's Sloan Hospital for Women, with twenty-five cases and two deaths. City health authorities investigated, learning that a portly Irish-American woman had suddenly disappeared from the kitchen help. The police tracked her to an estate on Long Island. She refused to cooperate with health authorities, withheld information about her past, and used different pseudonyms when she changed cities. Three deaths have been definitely attributed to her, with estimates running as high as 50. Mary was quarantined for life on North Brother Island. She died in 1938 of pneumonia. The autopsy revealed that her gallbladder was still actively shedding typhoid bacilli. She was buried by the Department of Health at Saint Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx. Slide 5 Background Jacobson v Massachusetts (1905) Com. v. Pear, Com. v. Jacobson, 67 L.R.A. 935, 183 Mass. 242, 66 N.E. 719 (Mass., Apr 02, 1903) (Compulsory Vaccinations, Small Pox, Police Powers) This is a suit against Mr. Pear and others to recover a fine of $5 for refusal to submit a Small Pox vaccination pursuant to a health statute. The statute in question, R.L.c.s 137 orders all residents of the city who have not been vaccinated or revaccinated to do so due to the prevalence of Small Pox. The board of health informed Mr. Pear that he would have to be vaccinated or pay a $5 penalty. Mr. Pear refused and was prosecuted. Mr. Pear claimed that the statute was unconstitutional under both the United States Constitution and the Massachusetts Constitution. The court found that the statute was not unconstitutional. The court recognized that the Constitution of Massachusetts authorizes such police powers in order to protect public health and safety. Mr. Pear also claimed that the court erred in not allowing him to admit testimony of medical experts who opposed vaccination. This case was then appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which upheld the Mass. Court in the classic public health case, Jacobson v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905) Source: http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cases/vaccines/Jacobson_v_Massachusetts_brief.htm Herman Biggs, Commissioner of Health of the State of New York (1892) In 1892, Dr. Herman Biggs of New York started mandatory reporting of TB cases. The board adopted most of the recommendations made by Biggs, including the creation of the Consumptive Hospital. These recommendations created a storm of controversy among the medical community. Many private doctors objected to the mandatory reporting, believing that it violated physician-patient confidentiality. Because of the resistance from the medical community, reporting practices were not fully implemented for several years. In the end, Biggs' recommendations to the Board and their implementation in New York City created the model for TB control programs that was page 18 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health emulated by other health departments across the country and laid the groundwork for a campaign called the "War on Consumption.“ Slide 6 Background Public Nuisances [n] (law) a broad legal concept including anything that disturbs the reasonable use of your property or endangers life and health or is offensive http://www.mrsc.org/Subjects/Legal/nuisances/nu-what.aspx In very general terms a nuisance is something that annoys -- a wearing on the nerves by a persistent unpleasantness. It can evoke anger and interfere with comfort and peace of mind. In a regulatory environment the term nuisance embraces anything that results in an invasion of one's legal rights. A nuisance involves an unreasonable or unlawful use of property which results in material annoyance, inconvenience, discomfort, or damage to another person or to the public. The unlawful use may involve doing something (example: piling garbage on residential property) or failing to do something (example: cutting or removing noxious weeds from residential property). Nuisances are sometimes called nuisances because they are remedied by abatement. Common nuisances include the accumulation of junk, animals, noise, dangerous buildings, sewage and unsanitary conditions, and encroachments on public right-of-way which interfere with pedestrian passage. The words abate and abatement are the legal terms used to describe the process for putting an end to, or terminating the nuisance. Slide 8 Background Fifth Amendment: “No person shall be…deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” Fourteenth Amendment applies due process to state governmental actions. Slide 9 Background Fourteenth Amendment: “Nor shall any state deprive any person of…equal protection of the laws.” Equal protection does not require the same treatment in all instances. For example: o More stringent driver’s license requirements to persons over 75 years of age. o Preferences to children, pregnant women, or special risk persons. Slide 10 Background Note the difference between intimate and nonintimate behavior. The courts have consistently rejected the argument that compulsory seat-belt use laws violate the Constitutional right to privacy. The court's recognition of individuals' right to privacy in deciding when and whether to have a child in Griswold became the basis for later reproductive rights decisions. In Eisenstadt page 19 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health v. Baird (1972), the court granted unmarried couples access to contraception, and in Roe v. Wade (1973), the court recognized a woman's right to choose abortion. Slide 12 Background 1798 Marine Hospital Service (prevent importation of epidemic diseases) evolved into U.S. Public Health Service. Influence of the federal government grew after the levy of a federal income tax (16th amendment - early 20th century) Slide 14 Background Tenth AmendmentThe powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. State health agencies: All fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have a state or territorial health agency (which we will call a state agency for brevity). Each state health agency is directed by a health commissioner or a secretary of health. Each state also has a chief state health officer, who is the top public sector medical authority in the state. (The same person may fill both positions, or the chief state health officer may answer to the director of the state agency.) State boards of health: As of 1982, twenty-four states had boards of health. In most of these states, the chief health officer reports to the board. In some states, the chief health officer is a member of the board. More than 90 percent of the state boards are appointed by the governor. The remainder are appointed by professional associations or by the state health agency director. The general responsibilities of state boards of health are policy and budget related. State and Local Government on the Net at http://www.statelocalgov.net/index.cfm It is common for city councils to develop their own local public health ordinances or health codes. This autonomous exercise of power is limited by the rule that localities may not assign responsibilities to local health departments that are in conflict with state laws and regulations. Thus public health law is even more of a patchwork at the local level, where health departments are not only responsible for local public health ordinances but must also deal with enforcement authority, responsibility, and limitations established by state law. Slide 15 Background Local regulations must be consistent with NYS law – can be more stringent. o Ask: What does “stringent” mean? o (Answer: STRICT -- Webster’s New World Dictionary – “1. Rigidly controlled, enforced, etc.; strict; severe.” Give an example of a local rule, regulation, or ordinance that is “more stringent” than the rule, regulation, or law of higher authority. Ask: Can a local rule be less stringent than a state regulation? (No) Ask: Because of HOME RULE, can a local rule be less stringent than a State law? (No) page 20 of 21 Instructor’s Guide Organization and Legal Basis of Public Health NYS example of process: NYS Clean Air Act o State Health Commissioner (Axelerod) passed a regulation that was challenged by the legislature o Court ruled that Axelerod overstepped his authority o Legislature passed legislation that was similar to the regulation Slide 19 Background What do you have an obligation to enforce and how do you enforce it? o Restaurant inspections – if the food temperatures are not acceptable, do you shut down the business? o Nursing home inspections – if the alarm system is down, do you shut down the business? o Indoor smoking Handouts for Module 3 3.1 Case Study (MS Word document) page 21 of 21