Planning: Public Engagement – Nebraska & Minnesota

Through an agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The Keystone Center provided process design, facilitation, meeting registration, electronic polling and logistical support for two of the CDC’s pandemic planning grantee states: Nebraska and Minnesota. Minnesota’s project focused on gathering input from the public on the goals for decision making and whether to and how to ration scarce treatment resources. The public meetings were part of a larger heath care ethics discussion. The results from these meetings will be reviewed by the Minnesota Center for Healthcare Ethics Stakeholder Group and used to inform the preliminary recommendations. Minnesota held two public meetings in Duluth and Owatonna. The Nebraska project worked with the Winnebago and Ponca tribes and Chadron and Indian Health Center tribal organizations in order to gather community input on whether to and how to modify tribal cultural events during a pandemic. CDC provided a white paper to guide states on the principles of consequential public engagement – White Paper on Principles of Consequential Public Engagement.

Contact:  Janesse Brewer

Return to Infectious Disease