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Melissa Magstadt, Cabinet Secretary for the South Dakota Department of Health, says healthcare must meet patients where they live; Ali Maffey, ASTHO’s Vice President of Social and Behavioral Health, explains approaches to making mental healthcare...
Melissa Magstadt, Cabinet Secretary for the South Dakota Department of Health, says healthcare must meet patients where they live; Ali Maffey, ASTHO’s Vice President of Social and Behavioral Health, explains approaches to making mental healthcare more accessible; Adrianna Evans, ASTHO’s Director of Preparedness and Disability Integration, shares the award-winning Disability and Preparedness Specialist Program which aimed to promote inclusivity for people with disabilities; ASTHO is hiring a Vice President of Finance; and an ASTHO blog explains Rhode Island’s success in raising their Full Time Employee cap.
South Dakota Department of Health: Immunizations & Vaccinations
ASTHO Webpage: ASTHO Earns Two National Awards for Public Health Program Innovation
ASTHO Webpage: Careers at ASTHO
ASTHO Webpage: Workforce Policy Spotlight: Successfully Raising FTE Caps in Rhode Island
ROBERT JOHNSON:
This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Wednesday, August 2, 2023. I'm Robert Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
MELISSA MAGSTADT:
There's a lot of miles between where a person is choosing to live and where our health care is delivered, and so that is some of our biggest challenges to overcome, not only in our rural but our frontier areas.
JOHNSON:
August marks National Immunization Awareness Month and states across the country are dealing with unique challenges. South Dakota Secretary of Health Melissa Magstadt says the size of the state and scarcity of population has planners there rethinking the approach.
MAGSTADT:
We're changing the mindset of that patients need to come to health care and really health care needs to go out to the patient. So, that means adding mobile units to hit our frontier areas. And putting immunizations into mobile vans that are set up to be clinics on wheels.
JOHNSON:
The state also recently launched the South Dakota Immunization Information System, and all-in-one tool for vaccinations.
MAGSTADT:
So, in other words, you can order your vaccines from that and keep track of that. And then for the patient, all of your records for your entire lifetime is kept in that. So, you know, immunizations today, 18 years from now, maybe that person needs it for their college and they'll be able to pull those immunizations out and keep track of that for the long haul.
JOHNSON:
Magstadt says the barriers to delivering immunizations have led to some valuable lessons learned.
MAGSTADT:
If the current way is not doing it, you've got to come up with something else. And that sometimes means we have to get out of our own way. So, that means maybe looking at policies again that says hey, we're only going to do our immunizations here or we're going to do it how we've always delivered that health care. You might have to go back to the drawing board and say do we have to do it this way? Or can it be done a different way?
JOHNSON:
Learn more about South Dakota's approach and National Immunization Awareness Month using the links in the show notes.
As the White House announces a plan to make mental health care more accessible ASTHO's Ali Maffey says there's also a focus on upstream approaches.
ALISON MAFFEY:
There are so many ways that public health promotes mental health and mental well-being in communities. Even when we think about our built environment strategies that promote active transportation and access to green spaces, we know that that has an incredible amount of impact on someone's sense of mental well-being.
JOHNSON:
Maffey says both upstream and downstream techniques have a role to play.
MAFFEY:
Many of us are familiar with the adage that, 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,' and though it's incredibly beneficial to people and their families that they can access care at a lower cost because it's covered by their insurance, we also know that investment in the upstream strategies is incredibly important to prevent those later costs on the treatment system.
JOHNSON:
Read more about the White House proposal using the link in the show notes.
Also today, ASTHO is recognized by the American Society of Association Executives for its Disability and Preparedness Specialist Program launched during the pandemic. This is Annie Evans.
ANNIE EVANS:
In this program, we placed 18 specialists in jurisdictions around the country, there were 16 states and two territories. And these specialists work to promote the inclusivity of people with disabilities in the COVID-19 response and beyond. So, they really were able to act as a voice for the needs of people with disabilities in those health agencies.
JOHNSON:
You can read ASTHO's news release about the silver award by clicking the link in the show notes.
It's Wednesday, and that means it's time to talk about job openings at ASTHO. The organization is hiring a vice president of finance. You can learn more and apply using the link in the show notes.
Finally, this morning, a new ASTHO blog article highlights Rhode Island's approach to raising its full-time employee cap. The move allowed the state to add 28 full-time positions. Find out how they did it by visiting the link in the show notes.
And if you have a minute, please take the time to give us a review. We'd like 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.
