893: Youth Behavioral Health, CHWs in Island Areas

SUMMER JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Friday, April 25, 2025. I'm Summer Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

SAMEER VOHRA:  

So, one of the other things that we're really proud that we've brought in is we're beginning the process of creating a Children's Agenda at the Illinois Department of Public Health.

JOHNSON: 

Dr. Sameer Vohra, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, and an ASTHO member, says his state is taking action for youth behavioral health.

VOHRA:  

The governor's bill is really focused around banning cell phone use during schools, and it's a really critical, important milestone as we know how much screen time and those challenges are affecting our ability for our students to learn.

JOHNSON: 

Another bill would directly involve public health.

VOHRA:  

And this bill would put the responsibility of the Department of Public Health to oversee a task force, a coalition, to work on providing recommendations around how we holistically look at it with partners in healthcare, in technology, in education, to provide a holistic solution and create pathways for our children to thrive and succeed.

JOHNSON: 

Vohra says all the work is focused on setting kids up for success.

VOHRA:  

How do we get upstream to ensure that we understand both the risk factors but also the protective factors that allow our kids to thrive in difficult situations, and use our platform as the public health agency to really talk about it as a public health issue, and use data-driven solutions to create impact.

JOHNSON: 

ASTHO recently released a report on community health workers in the territories and freely associated states. Aurora GrantWingate is with the National Association of Community Health Workers, or NACHW. She tells us why CHWs are pivotal in any situation.

AURORA GRANTWINGATE: 

What community health workers can do is really bridge that gap through education on chronic and infectious diseases, on helping to address social determinants of health. So, helping to address transportation needs, making sure that community members have access to healthy food and that they're able to have safe places to live.

JOHNSON: 

For the island areas, CHWs can be even more important.

GRANTWINGATE: 

The freely associated states and territories do have such unique situations. There are long situations of colonization and really unique cultural attitudes to health and public health, so having a community health worker who really deeply understands the issues in the community can be really essential to bridging the gaps for healthcare, for those social determinants of health.

JOHNSON: 

GrantWingate says she spoke with the CHW program in Guam and was impressed by the work being done.

GRANTWINGATE: 

And they talk so passionately about filling this need in the community for diabetes and heart disease education, and how CHWs were going from church to church on Sunday and able to give education and prevention material to these communities in the languages that they speak.

JOHNSON: 

ASTHO's full report is online now. There's a link in the show notes. You can click it to learn more.

Also, we want to give a big shout out to ASTHO member, Dr. Ayanna Bennett on her appointment to the Big Cities Health Coalition Board of Directors. Bennett is the director of the District of Columbia Department of Health, and we can't wait to see the work she does in this role.

Finally, this morning, ASTHO's Public Health - Hope, Equity, Resilience, and Opportunity, or PH-HERO, Workforce Resource Center is your place to find tools, recommendations and more to help you, help your workforce. The initiative is designed to address workforce, burnout, retention, and recruitment. The link, as always, is in the show notes.

That'll do it for today. We're back Monday morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Summer Johnson. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great weekend.