One Health Integration

The One Health Integration Working Group (formerly Integrating Animal Services with Public Health Working Group) has expanded the scope of our work to include considerations of One Health (the interconnectedness of the health of humans, animals, and the environment). Our group is focused on three areas: drafting a toolkit for integrating animals services with human and environmental service providers, discussing the practical implications for implementing One Health considerations in HASS programs, and developing a rigorous research agenda that can assess the One Health impacts of HASS programs, when implemented.

The One Health Integration Working Group has been discussing a number of topics related to collaborating with human service agencies. These topics include: identifying human service agencies with work that overlaps with animal service agencies, key shifts in language and metrics that will be needed to build and maintain collaboration with human service agencies, and sharing examples of programs that are already integrating with human service agencies (e.g. food pantries, temporary sheltering due to domestic violence or eviction, natural disaster response). Next, we will be conducting a review of the academic literature and conducting interviews with organizations across the U.S. who have implemented human-animal support services. The current goal of our group is to identify best practices for aligning and connecting human and animal service agencies.