One Health Integration

The One Health Integration group has been working on creating a document that defines each of the HASS Elements through a One Health perspective. This document will be integrated into the HASS Resource Guide in the coming months and will be paired with sample protocols for how to implement the HASS Elements with consideration of improving the health of humans, animals, and the environment.

The One Health WG is currently meeting in three separate sup-groups. One group is focused on articulating how to integrate One Health metrics into the HASS elements (Integration group). The second group is focused on building a One Health toolkit (Toolkit group). And the third group is developing a research agenda to examine the One Health impacts of the HASS elements (Research group). The Integration group has been going through each of the HASS elements and defining what the ‘old’ way (traditional shelter model) looks like and then what the HASS One Health version will look like. The goal of this sub-group is to create a big brain dump of program options that will then be narrowed down to demonstrate how to implement a One Health approach in animal services. The Integration group plans to meet relatively short term to finalize this list and then merge with the Toolkit group. The Toolkit group has defined the purpose, opportunity statement, and elements of the One Health Toolkit. Next month they will begin to take a deep dive into creating each of the One Health elements of HASS. The Research group is working with the Integration group to define key metrics and outcomes to measure the impacts of the HASS One Health model.

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.