542: Veterans Face Health Disparities, Island Areas Examine Indirect Cost Rates

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Thursday, November 9, 2023. I'm Robert Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

CHARITY MENEFEE: 

I think that you get a lot of hard skills and soft skills from the military from the Public Health Training that you get, as well, specifically from my Air Force training.

JOHNSON: 

Charity Menefee is a lieutenant colonel in the Tennessee Air National Guard and the Director of the Division of Public Health at the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, with Veterans Day observed nationwide tomorrow. Menefee is thinking about the connections between her public health and military service.

MENEFEE: 

If you look at the foundational public health services that we use as a model and those capabilities and competencies that are out there, they cover those in the training, even on the enlisted side and in the officer side. So, you really get those hard public health skills. There's real-world experience with that across a lot of different disciplines in public health.

JOHNSON: 

Like other communities, Menefee says veterans experience many health disparities.

MENEFEE: 

So, we know that we have higher rates of mental health issues, suicide, and depression in our veteran communities. But also, things like hearing loss and chronic pain affect our veteran community. So learning about those and then reaching out to those communities and learning how we can help assist and reduce barriers is very important.

JOHNSON: 

Menefee says leaders in her state hold listening sessions with veterans to hear their concerns and needs.

MENEFEE: 

Another thing that I think is helpful is learning what the veterans benefits and resources are and being able to help direct people within your communities to those. Sometimes that's a challenging path to navigate, and so being able to help point to resources is going to be important for that community as well.

JOHNSON: 

The CDC and the CDC Foundation have webpages on issues impacting veterans, including suicide, arthritis, and tobacco cessation. You can visit the links in the show notes.

A new ASTHO report looks to help island areas address challenges with indirect cost rates, or ICRs, associated with management of grant program funding. The question is how to better apply expenses such as rent, utilities, or the time of staff members who work on many different projects. This is ASTHO's Alex Wheatley.

ALEX WHEATLEY: 

The report sheds light on the landscape of ICRs used in the islands. It also sheds light on where the pain points are, and steps partners can take to help address them.

JOHNSON: 

Wheatley says the report produced by members of the Island Areas Work Group identified challenges that prevent agencies from making the best use of indirect cost rates.

WHEATLEY: 

They talked about health agencies lacking control over sort of government wide ICR processes and funds. The fact that grants can cap the amount of funding eligible to be spent on indirect costs, the lack of sufficient ICR guidance either from federal agencies or locally for use within the island health agency, and then just the timeliness of ICR processes.

JOHNSON: 

Wheatley adds, the same report offers ways to improve the process.

WHEATLEY: 

The recommendation for island health agency staff was to strengthen and clarify some of those inter-agency policies that influence health agencies establishing and maintaining current ICRs as well as receiving the relevant proportion of a government indirect cost funding stream. And then for partners, the recommendation was to offer technical assistance that focuses on some of the challenges highlighted in the report.

JOHNSON: 

You can download the ASTHO report using the link in the show notes.

Also today, you may have seen ASTHO social media posts about our recent visit with author Steven Covey. He attended an ASTHO Summit here in Washington, D.C. Covey also took time to talk with us about building trust within organizations. Next Monday and Tuesday, we share highlights of that conversation. This is the only place to hear the interview.

Finally, this morning, public health agencies can better serve people living with disabilities if they hire individuals with those lived experiences. Leaders also can take steps to improve awareness among current team members. A new ASTHO blog article examines disability inclusion in the public health workforce. You can read it using the link in the show notes.

Before we go, we'd like to remind you to follow this newscast on your podcast player and ASTHO on social media. We're on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. That'll do it for today. We're off for the Veterans Day holiday tomorrow, but back Monday morning with more ASTHO news and information. Hi, I'm Robert Johnson. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great holiday weekend.