Save the Date: 2019 Public Health in the Rockies

2019 Public Health in the Rockies Equity and Social Justice: Innovation at Elevation August 27 - 30, 2019 Keystone Conference Center, Keystone, Colorado Thank You To Our Presenting Sponsor! Register by June 15 to avoid paying the late conference rates! Are you ready to register for the biggest public health conference in the region? The theme of the 2019 Public Health in the Rockies conference is Equity and Social Justice: Innovation at Elevation. This theme continues discussions of our communities’ current and future public health issues. Most importantly, we will learn from our peers’ policy development efforts, advocacy work, authentic community engagement work, and innovative programs to address challenges related to advancing health equity and social justice. We will continue to discuss our current and future public health and advocacy work in addressing health equity, inclusiveness, and community engagement, in order to create real world solutions to improve the health of our communities. REGISTER NOW AT THE EARLY BIRD RATE Conference organizer is Colorado Public Health Association (CPHA)  The purpose of the 2019 Public Health in the Rockies Conference is to provide an opportunity for education, networking and skill development of professionals in Colorado and neighboring regions. The Conference is designed to build a more competent public health workforce. The goals of the conference are to: Provide a forum for public health professionals to develop new skills, demonstrate best practices, exchange lessons learned, share current research, and discover valuable resources. Offer a multi-disciplinary conference program that encompasses the broad aspects of public health. Stimulate innovation in public health practice. Promote awareness around Colorado’s adoption of the Public Health 3.0 and Foundational Public Health Services models. Provide a meeting and discussion opportunity for the CPHA members, other public health interest groups, special interest groups, and new & non-traditional public health partners. Encourage networking of all professions represented in public health, special interest groups, and new & non-traditional public health partners.

Attendees Register Here!

Opportunity: Contribute to the Cannabis Conversation with CDOT

Last month, CDOT and its partners officially kicked off the 2019 continuation of The Cannabis Conversation with a media event at Lightshade Dispensary. Media was invited to get an inside look at some of the creative concepts CDOT is working on for a future marijuana-impaired driving educational ad campaign and speak to representatives from our team, CSP, Marijuana Industry Group and Lightshade. Meanwhile, we also wrapped up preliminary message testing on the creative ad campaign concepts with a small group of online survey participants.

Since then, CDOT has been tweaking our creative concepts based on the preliminary feedback and is excited to launch a widespread public survey this week inviting the greater population of Colorado to weigh in and help further refine the ad concepts. We’ll also be conducting an online focus group next month to gather in-depth insights from selected participants. CDOT looks forward to sharing these ideas with the community and hearing your honest, constructive ideas for how our future education campaign can most effectively address the complicated issue of cannabis and driving.

CDOT will host the first event in a series of stakeholder workshops across the state on April 16 in Colorado Springs. In partnership with the CSU Institute of Cannabis Research and Native Roots the workshop will be an opportunity to dig deeper into discussions about ways to message marijuana-impairment education and identify potential solutions. Additional workshops are being planned for later this spring in Denver, Grand Junction and Gypsum 

On April 20, CDOT will be at the Fly Hi 420 Festival at Civic Center Park to talk with cannabis consumers, gather feedback on our creative ad concepts and provide an update on the campaign.

If your organization is interested in contributing to The Cannabis Conversation, bringing awareness to marijuana-impaired driving and helping identify potential solutions, contact Sam Cole at sam.cole@state.co.us for information on ways to get involved.

Conference: Suicide Prevention Research - A Global Imperative

We’re pleased to announce that together with the International Academy of Suicide Research, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention will once again be bringing together over 400 of the world’s preeminent suicide researchers, representing more than 30 countries, for the IASR/AFSP 2019 International Summit on Suicide Research. With a focus on “Suicide Prevention Research: A Global Imperative,” the four-day conference will be an opportunity to showcase and discuss the latest innovations and findings on how we can save more lives from this leading cause of death. The 2019 International Summit on Suicide Research will take place October 27-30 in Miami. The event is open to all suicide researchers, as well as those interested in learning the most innovative findings and evidence in the field. Early registration ends July 11, 2019. READ MORE

Share Tweet +1 Forward

Opportunity: Summer Institute on Child Maltreatment

The Kempe Summer Institute is recruiting students for its 2019 session August 5-9. Funded for five years by NICHD, we are building on our pilot work over the past two years to establish our courses. We have received great reviews from participants, made refinements, and are eager to recruit our new classes for this summer. We would appreciate your help. There are scholarships available on a competitive basis. See: https://registrations.publichealthpractice.org/Training/Detail/194

• Course 1 (led by Des Runyan and Dan Lindberg) is for medical clinicians already familiar with child abuse, and interested in developing their research skills. 

• Course 2 (led by John Fluke) is for trained researchers (or researchers in training) who are interested in gaining more knowledge about the problem of child abuse and neglect and learning about the different approaches to research, data resources, and ethical challenges in this body of work. 

• Course 3 (Led by Carol Runyan and Ashley Brooks-Russell) will introduce those with some familiarity with the topic of child maltreatment to public health concepts and approaches to prevention and will include discussion of significant preventive interventions with many of the innovators who developed the interventions and/or their evaluations.

The courses run simultaneously over one week, so students may take only one. Those interested in graduate credit may obtain one credit from the Colorado School of Public Health.

Please visit the link above for more information!

Stepping On Falls Prevention Program

Stepping On Q&A in Colorado The Wisconsin Institute for Healthy Aging is showcasing Stepping On License Holders from across the nation.  In this email, Shannon Myers shares a Q&A with Centura Health in Colorado.   Robert Hayes, RN Trauma Injury Prevention Specialist, is leading this effort, and his team has worked across the rural Eastern Plains, Metro/Urban, and Mountain Communities throughout in the state of Colorado.  Robert oversees the administrative aspects of the program—collecting data, monitoring fidelity and providing support, as well as annual reporting to WIHA.  He is also a Master Trainer. Centura Health has been growing its Stepping On team and bringing a much-needed service to Colorado residents for the past seven years, trying to reduce and eliminate falls, the top unintentional injury in Colorado.  With 42 active Leaders, four active Master Trainers and approximately 38 Stepping On workshops organized and co-led in 2018, this team is making great strides in falls prevention!

Webinar: Promoting Connectedness in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities through Culture

The ICRC-S Webinar Series: Preventing Suicide through Social Connectedness

Please join us for an ICRC-S Webinar Promoting Connectedness in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities through Culture

Monday, April 22, 2019 3:00 – 4:00 PM Eastern Time

ABOUT THE WEBINAR

Please join us for this third webinar of the ICRC-S 2018-19 webinar series, Preventing Suicide by Promoting Social Connectedness: Promoting Connectedness in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities through Culture. The Qungasvik (kung-az-vik) 'Toolbox' is a multilevel strength- based intervention developed by Yup'ik communities to reduce and prevent alcohol use disorder (AUD) and suicide in 12-18 year old Yup'ik Alaska Native youth. The intervention aims to increase strengths and protections against AUD and suicide by promoting culturally meaningful 'reasons for sobriety' and 'reasons for life.' During this webinar, Dr. Stacy Rasmus, Associate Research Professor and Director of the Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Dr. James Allen, Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and BioBehavioral Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth campus, will describe the Qungasvik intervention and the research leading to its development, review the research on which and how social connectedness concepts are addressed in American Indian/Alaska Native cultures, and present on the path taken by Alaska Native communities to adapt and implement the intervention to their local cultural context. Participants will be able to ask questions of the presenters.

Register for the webinar

Please note that we do not offer CEUs or certificates for our webinars. This webinar will be recorded and emailed to all registrants.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Stacy Rasmus, PhD, is Associate Research Professor and Director of the Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Dr. Rasmus has worked with American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities for over two decades and has built an international program of research focusing on the promotion of Indigenous strengths, wellbeing and resilience in Alaska, the Arctic and the Pacific Northwest. Dr. Rasmus is trained in the social and behavioral sciences with specific expertise in the translation of Indigenous knowledge and practice into health interventions that are community-driven and culturally-centered. She currently leads several NIH, NSF and SAMHSA grants that together engage AIAN populations in research and evaluation initiatives to eliminate disparities in youth suicide and substance use disorders, with a special focus on alcohol, opioids and co-occurring disorders. In addition to her research program, Dr. Rasmus also directs NIH capacity building and training grants, most recently becoming the Alaska PI for the American Indian and Alaska Native Clinical Translational Research Program (AIAN CTRP), a collaborative program bridging universities and Tribal partners in Alaska and Montana. Dr. Rasmus received her PhD in anthropology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

James Allen, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and BioBehavioral Health and the Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team for Rural and American Indian Health Equity at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth campus. For over two decades, he has worked with a community partnership to discover Alaska Native pathways to well-being and reasons for life using strength-based approaches. The team is currently testing this Indigenous intervention in work funded by NIAAA, NIMHD, NIMH, and the IDeA program. Dr. Allen also currently collaborates with Dr. Rasmus on the NIMH/NIMHD funded Alaska Native Collaborative Hub for Research on Resilience (ANCHRR), to discover local grassroots efforts in Alaska Native youth suicide prevention and conduct the Alaska Native Community Resilience Study (ANCRS), and with research projects of the Northwest Indian College (NWIC) Native American Research Center for Health (NARCH) exploring cultural and spiritual factors in recovery from opioid addiction in Pacific Northwest and Northern Minnesota tribal communities. Completed work includes contributions to a collaborative NSF project describing the resilience strategies of circumpolar Indigenous youth and an NINDS funded study of the epidemiology of stroke and vascular risk in Alaska Native people. While a Fulbright scholar at the University of Oslo, Allen developed additional research interest in the experience of international refugees. Dr. Allen received his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Montana and completed an internship in clinical psychology at Hutchings Psychiatric Institute in New York.

From Child Trends: Adverse childhood experiences are different than child trauma

Adverse childhood experiences are different than child trauma, and it’s critical to understand why By Jessica Dym Bartlett and Vanessa Sacks Legislators, caregivers, and the media increasingly recognize that childhood adversity poses risks to individual health and well-being. The original Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study has helped raise public awareness about this critical public health issue. However, as the use of ACEs questionnaires for identifying potentially harmful childhood experiences has gained popularity, it is important to understand how ACEs differ from other commonly used terms, including childhood adversity, trauma, and toxic stress. Childhood adversity is a broad term that refers to a wide range of circumstances or events that pose a serious threat to a child’s physical or psychological well-being. Common examples of childhood adversity include child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, bullying, serious accidents or injuries, discrimination, extreme poverty, and community violence. Research shows that such experiences can have serious consequences, especially when they occur early in life, are chronic and/or severe, or accumulate over time. For example, the effects of childhood adversity can become biologically embedded during sensitive periods of development and lead to lifelong physical and mental health problems. However, adversity does not predestine children to poor outcomes, and most children are able to recover when they have the right supports—particularly the consistent presence of a warm, sensitive caregiver. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)—a term coined by researchers Vincent Felitti, Robert Anda, and their colleagues in their seminal studyconducted from 1995 to 1997—are a subset of childhood adversities. The researchers asked adults about childhood adversities in seven categories: physical, sexual, and emotional abuse; having a mother who was treated violently; living with someone who was mentally ill; living with someone who abused alcohol or drugs; and incarceration of a member of the household. Researchers found that the more ACEs adults reported from their childhoods, the worse their physical and mental health outcomes (e.g., heart disease, substance misuse, depression). The term ACEs has since been adopted to describe varying lists of adversities. The current ACEs study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, includes parental divorce or separation and emotional and physical neglect; other studies have added experiences of social disadvantage (e.g., economic hardship, homelessness, community violence, discrimination, historical trauma).