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Marcus Plescia, ASTHO’s Chief Medical Officer, says public health aims to strengthen the use of antiviral COVID-19 protections in nursing homes; Priya Shah, ASTHO’s Senior Analyst of Health Improvement and Healthy Aging, shares an updated policy...
Marcus Plescia, ASTHO’s Chief Medical Officer, says public health aims to strengthen the use of antiviral COVID-19 protections in nursing homes; Priya Shah, ASTHO’s Senior Analyst of Health Improvement and Healthy Aging, shares an updated policy statement that focuses on improving older adults access to care and healthy aging; an ASTHO webinar will focus on Medicaid family planning state plan amendments and waivers; and sign up for ASTHO’s Public Health Weekly email newsletter.
ASTHO Policy Statement: Healthy Aging and Older Adult Health Policy Statement
ASTHO Webinar: Connecting Your Communities to Family Planning Coverage
ASTHO Public Health Weekly Newsletter
ROBERT JOHNSON:
This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Thursday, July 20, 2023. I'm Robert Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
MARCUS PLESCIA:
I think we need to really start looking at what are our inroads and our connection points to long term care facilities.
JOHNSON:
ASTHO Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Marcus Plescia, reacting to a new study that says the COVID therapy Paxlovid is barely used to treat nursing home residents with the virus. He says public health is looking at ways to improve uptake.
PLESCIA:
Nursing homes are regulated by the federal government by CMS. And so as a result, oftentimes, state and local governments don't get as involved. They don't have that regulatory relationship, but that doesn't mean that there aren't other things that we could really be working with those sites to sort of anticipate. Most public health urgencies are going to end up being a much bigger problem for people who are older, and in these kinds of settings, often have a lot of vulnerable people
JOHNSON:
Plescia says the work needs to happen with all care facilities, especially the smaller ones.
PLESCIA:
And then there's this whole other group of long-term care facilities that aren't being regulated by CMS, where I think we can be more involved. You know, during the course of the pandemic, many state health departments got much more engaged and involved with these kinds of facilities. And so, I think it's really just a matter of building on that.
JOHNSON:
The study, funded by the Federal Government and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, says only about one-fourth of COVID patients in nursing homes were treated with any antiviral between May 2021 and December 2022.
PLESCIA:
You know, now that we really understand a little bit better how vulnerable those places can be. We've also begun to make some relationships there and may have some - different jurisdictions may have ideas about ways that they could strengthen and have a stronger role in those facilities going forward.
JOHNSON:
You can read more about the study using the link in the show notes.
ASTHO has revised its policy statement on healthy aging and older adult health. This is ASTHO's Priya Shah.
PRIYA SHAH:
The policy statement includes really a lot of new recent data statistics and rates of chronic disease or rates on employment inequities, all of these things that are very important to policymakers that can be used to advocate for resources and funding.
JOHNSON:
The updated statement is organized into two key areas of focus.
SHAH:
Those two categories are improving older adults' independence, access to high quality care services and family caregiver support, and then the other category is promoting healthy aging over the life course through a Health in All Policies approach.
JOHNSON:
Shah says ASTHO policy statements are popular among member agencies.
SHAH:
So, this policy will be very beneficial for them just because it highlights the main priorities and latest data and research of policies that can really promote healthy aging, equitable healthy aging, and policies to promote older adult health for individuals residing in these jurisdictions.
JOHNSON:
You can download the revised policy statement using the link in the show notes.
Also today, there are ways to improve access to family planning services in your jurisdictions. O'Keyla Cooper has more.
O'KEYLA COOPER:
Join the ASTHO Contraception Access Learning Community webinar on August 2 from 1:00 to 2:00 pm. ET to learn about Medicaid family planning state plan amendments and waivers. The webinar will use Illinois as a case study and aims to help attendees understand family planning SPAs, effective strategies, and communication channels. The registration link is available in the shownotes.
JOHNSON:
Finally, this morning, stay up to date with everything happening in public health by signing up for ASTHO's Public Health Weekly email newsletter. It has news, research, case studies, and more. Get on the list using the link in the show notes.
And if you have a minute, please take time to leave us a review. We'd love to know what you think.
That'll do it for today's newscast. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Robert Johnson. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.
