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Omar Khalid, ASTHO’s Director of Workforce Development, explains the expansion of ASTHO’s Public Health – Hope, Equity, Resilience, and Opportunity (PH-HERO) initiative; Erin Laird, ASTHO’s Director of Emerging Infections, says preventing...
Omar Khalid, ASTHO’s Director of Workforce Development, explains the expansion of ASTHO’s Public Health – Hope, Equity, Resilience, and Opportunity (PH-HERO) initiative; Erin Laird, ASTHO’s Director of Emerging Infections, says preventing infections among dialysis patients is an important public health issue; ASTHO has a new report on the Suicide, Overdose, Adverse Childhood Experiences Prevention Capacity Assessment tool; and a new ASTHO blog article explains how to build capacity to address suicide, overdose, and adverse childhood experiences.
ASTHO Webpage: Funding & Collaboration Opportunities
CDC: Making Dialysis Safer For Patients Coalition
ASTHO Webinar: Making Dialysis Safer for Patients Coalition
ASTHO Webpage: Island Areas Resource
ROBERT JOHNSON:
This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Tuesday, August 8, 2023. I'm Robert Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
OMAR KHALID:
It helps agencies address workforce burnout, improve morale, and organizational resiliency, and to build a culture of well-being within public health agencies.
JOHNSON:
Workforce burnout continues to be a challenge for public health agencies. ASTHO's Omar Khalid says the PH-HERO initiative helps organizations address the problem.
KHALID:
Last year ASTHO began working with five pilot sites as part of the Future initiative. And we supported the pilot sites implementation teams to set priorities, to customize the implementation and support through peer connection, coaching and facilitation, and also learning opportunities and other resources.
JOHNSON:
Building on that experience, ASTHO now is ready to work with even more agencies.
KHALID:
So, this is a chance for up to eight additional jurisdictions to participate in the PH-HERO learning community. It's going to be open to not just ASTHO members, but to any CDC Public Health Infrastructure Grant recipients. So, that includes members of the Big Cities Coalition as well.
JOHNSON:
Khalid says the program will continue to adjust based on experience and feedback.
KHALID:
So, I think that we learned a little bit of what it means to offer this kind of support to public health agencies who are interested and engaged and see the opportunity, but also have to deal with the real challenges of, 'How do you implement this realistically in health agency? How do you balance this work with the other demands that you have?'
JOHNSON:
Agencies can apply to be part of the program until August 24. Get more information using the link in the show notes.
More than 14,000 bloodstream infections occurred in patients on dialysis in the US in 2020. ASTHO's Erin Laird says the Making Dialysis Safer for Patients Coalition meets annually to discuss this and other concerns.
ERIN LAIRD:
The annual meeting is an opportunity for the coalition members to hear stories of success from folks working in dialysis patient safety, including a variety of perspectives from both public health settings, but also dialysis care settings.
JOHNSON:
Laird says patient voices were a highlight of this year's meeting.
LAIRD:
The coalition also works really hard to feature patient perspectives because it's, you know, obviously very critical that patient perspectives are included in these conversations and that we not lose sight of that. So, the meeting this year included some patient voices as well. And that patient panel was really early on in the two-day event, which I think really helped to kind of center those voices.
JOHNSON:
And as with so many other public health concerns, Laird says this one also impacts some communities more than others,
LAIRD:
In one bloodstream infection in particular, Staphylococcus aureus, or "staph," this infection occurs more often in Black and Hispanic patients on dialysis than it does in White patients on dialysis. So, preventing infections among dialysis patients is also an important public health issue because there are those health disparity considerations as well.
JOHNSON:
Read more about the coalition by visiting the CDC's webpage. There's a link in the show notes.
Also today, an ASTHO tool is helping Island agencies review their ability to respond to critical public health concerns. O'Keyla Cooper has more.
O'KEYLA COOPER:
The Suicide, Overdose, Adverse Childhood Experiences Prevention Capacity Assessment Tool assists Island agencies in assessing their readiness to handle suicide, overdose, and adverse childhood experience issues. Five agencies including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, use SPACECAT for insights in a new ASTHO report, highlighting findings, improvement steps, and an interactive dashboard for further exploration. The full report is available using the link in the show notes.
JOHNSON:
Finally, this morning, in addition to the SPACECAT tool, ASTHO has a blog article on how to build capacity to address suicide, overdose, and adverse childhood experiences. You can read it using 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.
