Approaches to Operationalizing One Health

One Health is well accepted as an approach to understand issues at the interface of human, animal, and environmental health. This work requires cross cultural and interdisciplinary collaborative efforts that utilize several strategies while prioritizing community involvement. With this approach a broad and simultaneously deep knowledge base can be developed. Such a constructionist approach to problem solving can support tremendous understanding of problems at their root causes, but this process is often associated with challenges that make operationalizing One Health difficult. In this course students will learn what toolkits are available and widely used, their strengths and shortcomings, and how to implement them to put One Health concepts into practice.

Five different tools will be described and practiced to enhance the approach, understanding, and implementation of each platform. Each of these tools will be reviewed and discussed in how they are used from a community-based participatory approach.

By the end of this course students will have the opportunity to apply what they have learned through all three One Health courses by choosing an issue that they themselves have seen or experienced. They will create their own personalized portfolio that will allow them to apply their understanding of One Health, and utilize the skills and toolkits attained to build a sustainable mitigation plan.

Students who complete this course will:

• Discuss how/why Toolkits can be useful
• Determine the effectiveness of toolkits as a resource
• Learn the basic operation of some One Health toolkits
• Identify ways that toolkits can collaborate
• Know how to use information learned in One Health courses to apply to life
• Put together a portfolio and sustainability plan on an issue that will be assessed.