529: New Falls Prevention Guide, Vaccine Uptake Strategies

ROBERT JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Monday, October 23, 2023. I'm Robert Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

PRIYA SHAH: 

The purpose of the guide is really to align current falls prevention efforts to support community and clinical linkages and offer strategies to assist in implementing new efforts to support those linkages.

JOHNSON: 

ASTHO's Priya Shah on a new guide to falls prevention that outlines strategies, best practices, and three steps to help jurisdictions expand their work in this area.

SHAH: 

So, at a high level, the step one would be just conducting a current state assessment or what are the existing falls prevention activities currently going on in the jurisdiction. And the second step would be to review those activities and think about what else can be done to support community and clinical linkages in the state. And lastly, step three would focus on developing a plan to determine what activities need to be completed next.

JOHNSON: 

Shah wants organizations of all kinds to use the report.

SHAH: 

This guide is intended to be used primarily by state health department agency staff working in falls prevention, but it also can be helpful for multi-sector partners to governmental, federal, state, and local as well as non-governmental, such as nonprofits and health care professionals to determine what their role is in supporting falls prevention efforts.

JOHNSON: 

You can read the new report about how to expand your falls prevention work using the link in the show notes.

Rhode Island is a leader in adolescent immunizations. That's according to recent CDC data. Dr. Phillip Chan is with the state health department. He credits, in part, Rhode Island's status as a universal vaccine state.

PHILIP CHAN: 

So, the vaccine is available to people with no out-of-pocket costs. Providers, clinics can charge an administration cost, but the cost of the vaccine itself is free.

JOHNSON: 

Chan says the policy assures providers that they'll have the vaccines they need to promote uptake among their patients.

CHAN: 

We know that we can get it from the Department of Health. It also allows us to give it to our patients who need it most, who may also not be able to pay. So, it's offset the cost for our patients and especially, in some of the underserved areas of our state, it has been really important to address some of those disparities.

JOHNSON: 

He says a state system to manage vaccine coverage among patients also makes it easier to get people immunized.

CHAN: 

So, this is all tracked through our RICAIR database. It allows us to minimize waste, It's a reliable vaccine supply for providers, and I think importantly, we've also built up very strong connections, networking, community-based contacts, which allows us to really have good vaccine uptake here in our state of Rhode Island.

JOHNSON: 

You can read more about Rhode Island's work to increase vaccination uptake by clicking the link in the show notes.

Also today, Healthy Aging and Brain Health are public health issues. O'Keyla Cooper has more.

O'KEYLA COOPER: 

Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer at ASTHO discusses the issue of cognitive impairment among older adults, highlighting the limitations of clinical medicine with 16.6% of those 65 and older affected. Plescia urges health officials to prioritize healthy aging through public health programs and advocates for initiatives like the Healthy Brain Initiative, focusing on cognitive health prevention and risk reduction. You can read the full blog article by clicking the link in the show notes.

JOHNSON: 

Finally, this morning, ASTHO keeps you informed with this newscast and several email newsletters. You can get the latest news releases, event information, legislative updates, and more delivered to your email inbox. Get more information using the link in the show notes.

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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.