This training describes how to implement the first stage of the CDC policy process – Problem Identification. Using a scenario focused on the opioid problem in fictitious Tycho County, the course discusses the practical steps that a health department, working in collaboration with key stakeholders, can take to describe and understand this complex problem. The course also explores how the application of systems thinking tools and approaches to make boundary decisions and visualize the problem using behavior over time graphs and rich pictures, can strengthen this stage of the policy making process.

This learning opportunity topic is aligned with one or more of the strategic skills.  

This learning opportunity addresses training topics identified in PHWINS 2017.