Features
Health & Education Staff Work Together to Prevent HIV, STD and Teen Pregnancy – The National Stakeholders Meeting (NSM) is a collaborative project of AMCHP, the National Association of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD), the National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD), and the Society of State Directors of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation (the Society) and is supported by CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health. The meetings bring together state teams with the goal of strengthening collaboration between state health agencies and state education agencies to support and improve HIV, STD, and unintended and teen pregnancy prevention for school-aged youth. The NSM is one activity that helps AMCHP achieve one of its priority goals related to adolescent preventive health: working with state Title V/MCH programs to improve the health and safety outcomes for adolescents and young adults. To date, 33 states have participated in a National Stakeholders Meeting. (See a map of participating states.)
The most recent NSM was held in January 2008 with teams from Alaska, Arizona, Kentucky and Massachusetts. These teams are now participating in a year-long follow-up process with the four national partners to support implementation of the collaborative action plans they created at the meeting. This process includes various types of support from the national partners, including follow-up calls and the opportunity to apply for mini-grants and technical assistance visits. The teams will be working on such activities as enlisting the support of faith-based and community stakeholders to support their efforts; sharing data and surveillance across agencies; collecting medically accurate best practices in prevention for dissemination to school districts and health care providers; and, developing state policies to improve adolescent prevention efforts.
The national partners are conducting a needs assessment in preparation for a “Reconvene” meeting in January 2009 that will bring together selected state teams that previously participated in the NSM process to help further institutionalize the collaboration. The partners are also working on resources to summarize the successes of the project over the past five years – look for more information in upcoming editions of Pulse and on the updated adolescent health section of the AMCHP website!
If you would like more information about the NSM, please contact Rebecca Barson.
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National Public Health Week is April 7-13 – The theme of this year’s National Public Health Week is Climate Change: Our Health in the Balance. There is a direct connection between climate change and the health of our nation today. Yet few Americans are aware of the very real consequences of climate change on the health of our communities, our families and our children. The public health community can help make the connection between the way we lead our lives, our impact on the planet and the planet’s impact on our health. By highlighting these links, we can help Americans make choices and lead life-styles that are healthy for them, their families, their communities and the climate. Doing so will help communities prepare to manage and lessen the impacts of climate change. Check out the National Public Health Week website to learn more and download a NPHW toolkit with fact sheets, media outreach materials and suggested community events.
Premiere: Unnatural Causes… Is Inequality Making Us Sick? – This four hour documentary series will explore racial and socioeconomic disparities in health care in the U.S. The first segment will air at March 27 at 10 p.m. (9 p.m. Central) on PBS, and continue the following three Thursdays.
Download a PDF version of Pulse
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