Job Description
Established in 1805, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (the NYC Health Department) is the oldest and largest health department in the country. Our mission is to protect and improve the health of all New Yorkers, in service of a vision of a city in which all New Yorkers can realize their full health potential, regardless of who they are, how old they are, where they are from, or where they live.
As a world-renowned public health agency with a history of building transformative public health programming and infrastructure, innovating in science and scholarship to advance public health knowledge, and responding to urgent public health crises from New York City’s yellow fever outbreak in 1822, to the COVID-19 pandemic we are a hub for public health innovation, expertise, and programs, and services. We serve as the population health strategist, and policy, and planning authority for the City of New York, while also having a vast impact on national and international public policy, including programs and services focused on food and nutrition, anti-tobacco support, chronic disease prevention, HIV/AIDS treatment, family and child health, environmental health, mental health, and racial and social justice work, among others.
Our Agency’s five strategic priorities, building off a recently-completed strategic planning process emerging from the COVID-19 emergency, are:
1) To re-envision how the Health Department prepares for and responds to health emergencies, with a focus on building a “response-ready” organization, with faster decision-making, transparent public communications, and stronger surveillance and bridges to healthcare systems 2) Address and prevent chronic and diet-related disease, including addressing rising rates of childhood obesity and the impact of diabetes, and transforming our food systems to improve nutrition and enhance access to healthy foods
3) Address the second pandemic of mental illness including: reducing overdose deaths, strengthening our youth mental health systems, and supporting people with serious mental illness
4) Reduce black maternal mortality and make New York a model city for women’s health
5) Mobilize against and combat the health impacts of climate change
Our 7,000-plus team members bring extraordinary diversity to the work of public health. True to our value of equity as a foundational element of all of our work, and a critical foundation to achieving population health impact in New York City, the NYC Health Department has been a leader in recognizing and dismantling racism’s impacts on the health of New Yorkers and beyond. In 2021, the NYC Board of Health declared racism as a public health crisis. With commitment to advance anti-racist public health practices that dismantle systems that perpetuate inequitable power, opportunity and access, the NYC Health Department continues to work in and with communities and community organizations to increase their access to health services and decrease avoidable health outcomes.
Program and Job Description:
he New York City (NYC) Bureau of Tuberculosis Control (BTBC) is committed to preventing the spread of tuberculosis (TB) and eliminating it as a public health problem in NYC. The core goals of the bureau are to identify all individuals with suspected or confirmed TB disease and ensure their appropriate treatment, ideally on directly observed therapy (DOT), and to ensure that individuals at high risk for progression from latent TB infection to TB disease complete treatment and do not develop disease. To fulfill its mission and goals, BTBC performs a number of integrated activities and provides patient-centered services in collaboration with local health care providers, laboratories, community partners and others. With a focus on public health and the needs of individuals with TB and their families, these activities support effective TB prevention and control. The Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology conducts surveillance of suspected and confirmed cases of TB; maintains the TB registry and case management system (Maven) of all TB cases, contacts to TB cases, persons suspected of having TB and children under 5 with latent TB infection (LTBI); conducts epidemiologic investigations to assess TB transmission in congregate settings; and conducts data analysis and research to describe the epidemiology of TB in NYC and to inform TB prevention and control policy. We are seeking a Public Health Adviser II to join our Expanded Contact Investigations Team, which investigates TB exposures in non-household settings. As an integral part of the team, this person, with supervision, will assist with contact investigations in these sites and be part of the decision-making process that leads to such investigations. The ideal candidate will be organized, has strong attention to detail, enjoys working with and serving the public, and can work both independently and as part of a team.
DUTIES WILL INCLUDE BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO:
Plan and conduct TB contact investigations in non-household and congregate settings, such as worksites, schools, and shelters
Communicate with patients, providers, laboratory and other staff (in person or on the phone) to conduct interviews, collect relevant information, and arrange for follow-up medical evaluations
Assess results of investigations to determine if further expansion of the investigation is warranted
Assist in conducting TB education sessions at sites where exposures have occurred
Conduct phlebotomy on persons needing TB testing, including administering diagnostic testing for TB and collecting and transporting specimens as needed
Perform TB testing in community settings as part of contact investigations or community screenings
Other duties as required
Qualifications
1. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college, including or supplemented by twelve semester credits in health education, or in health, social or biological sciences; or
2. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college, and six months of full-time satisfactory experience in a health promotion or disease intervention/prevention program, performing one or more of the following: interviewing, conducting field investigations, assessing health risks, making referrals, or collecting and analyzing epidemiological data; or
3. A four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent, and four years of full-time satisfactory experience as described in "2" above; or
4. Education and/or experience equivalent to "1", "2" or "3" above. Undergraduate college credit can be substituted for experience on the basis of 30 semester credits from an accredited college for one year of full-time experience. However, all candidates must have a four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent, and either twelve semester credits as described in "1" above or six months of experience as described in "2" above.
Additional Requirements
A. To be assigned to Assignment Level II, candidates must have, in addition to meeting the minimum qualification requirements listed above, at least one year of experience as a Public Health Adviser, Assignment Level I, or at least one additional year of experience as described in Qualification Requirement "2" above.
