Oklahoma Public Health Association

PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY

OPHA members and other individuals interested in public health policy and advocacy can stay informed about policy issues that impact public health by getting involved with the OPHA Policy Committee or participating in Policy Fridays, exploring the advocacy pages on our website, and keeping and eye out for updates through our newsletters and social media. Please the policy topics OPHA engages with at the local and state levels below in our policy agenda, and contact OPHA's Executive & Policy Director, McKenzie Cowlbeck, with any questions.

2025 Policy Agenda

Promoting public health through education, practice, and advocacy is central to OPHA’s mission. OPHA’s goal in developing our Policy Agenda is to call attention to and influence legislation and policies affecting ongoing public health concerns in Oklahoma. Please find OPHA's 8 policy topic areas and respective subtopics below.

Child Health

This topic area includes promoting the physical and mental health, wellbeing, and safety of children, including the following subtopics:

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
Protective and Compensatory Childhood Experiences (PACEs)
Anti-bullying
Comprehensive sexual health education
Child care
Book bans
Social emotional learning
Physical activity
Childhood vaccination
Trauma-informed policies, practices, and trainings

Food & Nutrition

This topic area includes championing policies that increase food security, including the following subtopics:

Nutrition education and food literacy
State sales tax on healthy foods
Food access for older adults and people with disabilities
Funding school meals
Rural versus urban food nutrition and access
Food and nutrition programming and workgroups
Local food infrastructure

Health Infrastructure

This topic area includes supporting funding and policy necessary to develop strategies to strengthen the state health workforce and social determinants/drivers of health, including the following subtopics:

Rural provider coverage
Safe greenspaces and active infrastructure
Fair and affordable housing practices
Affordable prescriptions
Environmental and climate-related health
Diversity, equity, and inclusion education and training
Civic engagement and voting
Health literacy
Broadband infrastructure and adoption
Public health and health care workforce

Healthy Populations

This topic area includes supporting and protecting the health and rights of populations with focus populations including:

Lower income communities
Older adults
People with disabilities
Refugees
Victims of sexual and domestic violence
Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated communities
LGBTQIA2S+ community
Racial and ethnic minorities

Maternal & Reproductive Health

This topic area includes improving access to maternal and reproductive care with focus areas including:

Breastfeeding/chestfeeding
Paid family leave
Midwifery and doula services and certifications
Reproductive and family planning
Preventative and emergency contraception
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
Menstrual products
Preconception, pregnancy, and post-pregnancy substance use

Mental & Behavioral Health

This topic area includes preventing and mitigating adverse mental and behavioral health outcomes and substance use/misuse, including the following subtopics:

988 crisis response phone number education
Trauma-informed policies, practices, and trainings
Affordable counseling and therapy
Mental health parity
Take-back infrastructure for medical sharps and medications
Alcohol misuse
Opioid misuse
Harm reduction programming, access, and education

Public Health Authority

This priority area includes protecting and promoting the field of public health’s legal ability to further population health by using tools such as community engagement, data collection, scientific research, laws and regulations, enforcement, and the many methods of sharing information and guidance with those who need it most in Oklahoma, including the following subtopics: