632: National Public Health Week Goes Local, ASTHO Launches Healthy Brain Resources

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Friday, March 29, 2024. I'm Robert Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

GEORGES BENJAMIN: 

So, we want everyone to see that public health is here every day that everyone is a part of it. And public health saved your life today. But you may not even know it.

JOHNSON: 

National Public Health Week starts Monday. This year's focus everyone plays a role. The American Public Health Association produces the week long celebration. This is APHA Executive Director, Dr. Georges Benjamin.

BENJAMIN: 

Well we're trying to have a holistic celebration. So, the theme is protecting, connecting and thriving. To point out that we are all public health. And so it is trying to get a holistic approach throughout the community to engage in public health.

JOHNSON: 

Benjamin says even if it's not obvious, many people work in jobs that are connected to public health.

BENJAMIN: 

So, if you are a sanitarium worker, you are getting rid of the garbage and you're protecting people from a public health perspective. If you have worked in a restaurant, you're preparing good food, nutritious food, and safe food, so you're a part of public health.

JOHNSON: 

Benjamin says each day is intended to inspire people to act according to the selected topics.

BENJAMIN: 

So, there will be forums, there will be speeches, there will be volunteer activities in communities. You know, we have a lot of people who are not food secure. So, there'll be people out making sure that people have access to food. And we're also trying to engage people to embrace their neighbors; to get out, to meet their neighbors and to make sure they're safe and healthy.

JOHNSON: 

You can learn more about National Public Health Week by clicking the link in the show notes. We also plan to discuss each of the seven topics on the agenda starting Monday and continuing into the following week. Listen daily for those conversations.

A new ASTHO resource hub explains how to integrate sustainability into your work on the Healthy Brain Initiative. ASTHO's Kellie Waugh says the hub includes videos and a report available for download.

KELLIE WAUGH: 

This hub is really the culmination of interviews and research that our team has conducted over about the last year with a very intentional focus on sustainability and public health.

JOHNSON: 

Waugh says sustainability is critical to the longevity of the Healthy Brain Initiative and every other public health program.

WAUGH: 

As a team, we just felt so strongly that this topic of sustainability is extremely important and applicable across all of public health work. So, we worked hard to ensure that anyone working across public health could take away something from this resource and the videos to bring back to their area of the work.

JOHNSON: 

Visit ASTHO's Healthy Brain Initiative resource hub using the link in the show notes.

Also today, our conversations with women in public health continue as Women's History Month comes to a close. ASTHO member, Jill Hunsaker Ryan is the executive director of Colorado's Health Department.

JILL HUNSAKER RYAN: 

I work with a lot of wonderful employees, a lot of those are also women leaders, for whom, I'm just so grateful and could not do this job without.

JOHNSON: 

It's also about the women who came before her. And to those who balance work and family.

HUNSAKER RYAN: 

I also stand on the shoulders of many women leaders, who have helped to shape the public health system in Colorado, nationally. And, I'm a mom, as well as a woman leader. So I think, being in those roles, you really have to learn how to balance and kind of be good at everything.

JOHNSON: 

Ryan says women bring lived experiences that contribute to her department's success.

HUNSAKER RYAN: 

That may be challenges that they've had in being a woman and being in the workplace. But it's also, different perspectives. It's, like I said, I'm a mom. So for people who are moms, we bring a certain perspective and a certain empathy for moms in the workplace.

JOHNSON: 

Finally, this morning, infant mental health is examined in an ASTHO webinar set for Monday, April 8. Learn about the latest innovative programs, policies and research, sign up using the link in the show notes.

Before we go, a reminder also to follow this newscast on your podcast player and connect with ASTHO on social media. We are on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

That'll do it for today. We're back Monday 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 weekend.