552: ASTHO Updates Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy Statement, New Grants Management Toolkit

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Tuesday, November 28, 2023. I'm Robert Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

PATRICIA TILLEY: 

Policies that restrict access to basic health care like contraception can be detrimental to the health, wellness, and economic mobility of individuals across the lifespan.

JOHNSON: 

ASTHO releases five policy statements. Four of them are updates to existing statements. One is new. Patricia Tilley is director of New Hampshire's health department. She worked on revisions to the statement for sexual and reproductive health and says it raises many questions for policymakers.

TILLEY: 

How are we as leaders, ensuring access to medically accurate information and evidence-based care? How is telehealth being used in our states for these services? How are we maximizing public and private funding in innovative ways? How are we braiding, blending, and developing a collective impact model with all people, and all organizations, and all programs that are committed to positive youth development, preventing, and treating STIs, improving access to cancer screening, and so much more.

JOHNSON: 

Tilley notes the statement emphasizes access and individual decision-making.

TILLEY: 

The statement also highlights that there's consensus that individuals need to have the power and access to make their own health decisions around family planning, protecting themselves against sexually transmitted infections, and that states have an opportunity to ensure that their policies protect the ability to make those decisions.

JOHNSON: 

Tilley understands states and territories have differing approaches to these issues, but she wants the revised policy statement to drive discussions about the best approaches for all communities.

TILLEY: 

The policies that we've suggested are sometimes practical, and sometimes aspirational. As we see increasing rates of maternal mortality, and ongoing epidemics of substance misuse, and the mental and behavioral health challenges facing all of us across this country, it's critical that we make sure that all people have access to the healthcare they need, so they can optimize their own trajectory.

JOHNSON: 

You can read ASTHO's news release about all five policy statements using the link in the show notes.

National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness month ends on Thursday. Meghan Fadel with the Alzheimer's Association recognizes the work accomplished by public health agencies this year.

MEGHAN FADEL: 

Public health agencies are really taking action to promote brain health to increase early detection, and diagnosis, and also to better support families and communities who are all impacted by dementia.

JOHNSON: 

Fadel says the Healthy Brain Initiative roadmap is an important tool in the work to address Alzheimer's.

FADEL: 

The framework is centered on health equity and focuses on it surrounded by the areas of practice across the life course. So, things that include risk reduction, early detection and diagnosis, caregiving, and also community clinical linkages to ensure that we're making those connections.

JOHNSON: 

You can read more about the framework and other Alzheimer's initiatives using the link in the show notes.

DAN KEATING: 

So, it's extremely tragic and extremely preventable, and we've done a good job on things like driving down death rates by motor vehicle accidents, but we're not doing a similar good job on overdoses and even these days with violence.

JOHNSON: 

Washington Post data reporter Dan Keating on a project that studied chronic disease and life expectancy in the United States.

KEATING: 

So, what I see as a solution is not regulatory, but a system that provides a lot better encouragement for people to live healthy lives and opportunities for them to do that.

JOHNSON: 

You can find a link to the report in the show notes. Finally, this morning, ASTHO has a new toolkit to help your agency manage its grants process. O'Keyla Cooper has more.

O'KEYLA COOPER: 

The Grants Management Office Structure Optimization toolkit is a collaborative tool designed to help health departments establish and maintain a centralized GMO for better utilization of federal funding. It is useful for health departments looking to assess their current grant workload, staffing requirements, and potential opportunities to allocate efforts and support efficiently. The toolkit can be accessed by clicking the link in the show notes.

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

Before we go, we'd like to remind you to follow this newscast on your podcast player and asked her on social media. We're on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

That'll do it for today. 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.