News

Public health practitioners, researchers, and community-based service providers are invited to submit abstracts for the National Indian Health Board (NIHB) 2017 National Tribal Public Health Summit, taking place June 6-8, 2017 in Anchorage, Alaska. Deadline to submit abstracts is March 17, 2017.

NIHB encourages presentations highlighting evidenced-based, best, wise, or promising practices developed in and for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. NIHB is particularly interested in presentations that provide tools along with information and research, so that participants may leave with the tools they need to make the knowledge they gain actionable. NIHB is also looking for presentations highlighting the various social determinants of health (i.e. socioeconomic status, access to education and employment, the physical environment, etc.) as they pertain to the issues discussed. This year, NIHB has two new conference tracks— one on environmental health and climate change, and the other dedicated to public health issues specific to Native Youth. This year’s summit emphasizes sustaining public health as a national priority, so consider topics and content that will focus on key skills related to this theme within one of the five summit tracks – (1) Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, (2) Public Health Policy, Infrastructure and Capacity, (3) Substance Misuse and Behavioral Health, (4) Climate Change and Environmental Health, (5) Empowering Youth Wellness.

Read more about the call for proposals.

The Center for Juvenile Justice Reform (CJJR) is accepting applications for its 5th Annual Youth in Custody Certificate Program to be held July 10–14, 2017, at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. This training, conducted with support from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, is designed for juvenile justice system leaders and partners working to improve outcomes for youth in post-adjudication custody. This year, CJJR has partnered with the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators to run the program. The application deadline is April 7, 2017.

The Youth in Custody Certificate Program is designed to help leaders implement or accelerate systemic change to improve outcomes for youth in post-adjudication custody. Most efforts to date have focused on ensuring that low and moderate-risk youth are not committed to juvenile justice facilities. Less attention has been paid to best practices for serving the high-risk youth who are in the custody of the juvenile justice system. Also, while research has shown the juvenile justice field “what works” for this population, it is often difficult for juvenile justice systems to reform their practices to be in line with best practices.

The Youth in Custody Certificate Program provides an interactive and dynamic learning environment with instruction from national experts on cutting edge ideas, policies and practices from across the country. Specifically, the program focuses on the serious, high-risk juvenile offender population and utilizes modules that review and integrate best practices including family engagement, trauma informed treatment and strengths-based approaches.

Read more about the program.

Black women and Latinas will be seeing more positive, culturally familiar images associated with HIV prevention and treatment in New York City around Harlem and the Queens neighborhood of Jackson Heights, as well as in Central New Jersey, starting on March 10, 2017.

On that day, National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, the bilingual social marketing campaign Love Your Life will debut in those areas. Following in the footsteps of the Let’s Talk About PrEP and PrEP for Her campaigns, Love Your Life encourages women of color to become active in protecting their sexual health.

Despite recent improvements in rates of new HIV infection, both Black women and Latinas disproportionately experience HIV. In 2014 in New York City, 66 percent of total HIV diagnoses among women occurred among Black women, while 25 percent occurred among Latinas/Hispanic women, according to the New York Department of Health and Mental Health. What’s more, 45 percent of all people newly diagnosed with HIV in New York City between 2010 and 2014 were Black and 33 percent were Hispanic/Latino. On World AIDS Day in 2015, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced an ambitious plan to end the AIDS epidemic in his city by the year 2020. The Love Your Life campaign supports this goal.

Conceived by Duane Cramer Creative and spearheaded by Iris House and Voces Latinas, Love Your Life projects bright, colorful and uplifting images of Black women and Latinas to embolden and inspire them to put their wellness first. Iris House—the first nonprofit in the United States to focus on women and HIV, with locations in Harlem and Plainfield, N.J.—has been serving women of color since 1992. Executive Director Ingrid Floyd says that Black women and Latinas have been neglected in the messaging surrounding HIV prevention and services.

Read more on BlackAIDS.org.

Health outcomes in the United States are not created equal, statistics have long shown. African-Americans, in particular, face disparate health risks. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks disease and mortality rates through its National Vital Statistics System, the age-adjusted death rate in 2014 for the black population was 849.3 deaths per 100,000 population, which was 1.2 times that of whites, with 725.4 per 100,000.

Hypertension, renal disease, diabetes and cardiovascular disease are among the most notable areas in which blacks face higher death rates. Whites are more likely to succumb to suicide, chronic liver disease, chronic lower respiratory disease and Parkinson’s disease.

But those aren’t the only areas of concern, as two physicians from UMass Memorial Health Care discussed in interviews during Black History Month. Lack of awareness about health risks, access to care, cultural traditions and attitudes, as well as living conditions, all play into health status. Health care providers are broadening their efforts to take into account these differences.

Dr. Jennifer S. Bradford is a family medicine physician who practices at Community Healthlink’s Homeless Outreach and Advocacy Project, and provides substance abuse treatment with Spectrum Health Systems. “For anyone in underserved populations, I have to pay attention to the social determinants of health,” Dr. Bradford said. She considers, for instance, whether a patient has safe housing and access to healthy food, and whether he or she comes from a violent home or has a history of trauma.

Some conditions are more of a challenge to address among her African-American patients, however. “Mental health in particular is something that we don’t talk enough about,” she said. “A lot don’t want to discuss medication, because it’s seen as a sign of weakness.”

Read more on Telegram.com.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) has announced a call for applications for eligible college and university counseling centers to implement the Interactive Screening Program (ISP). ISP is an online tool for college and university counseling centers to reach out to students with significant barriers to help-seeking and encourage them to utilize available mental health services before crises emerge. AFSP will cover fees for a three-year term for institutions to establish the program as part of a comprehensive suicide prevention and mental health promotion strategy on campus. Applications are due by April 15, 2017.

Read more about the call for applications.

The Navy has announced the launch of a suicide prevention program that aims to provide continuous support to at-risk individuals in the 90 days following a suicide-related behavior. Designed to augment mental health treatment, the Sailor Assistance and Intercept for Life (SAIL) program includes rapid assistance, regular risk assessment, and resource referral. SAIL is currently available at all Fleet and Family Support Centers. While all sailors are eligible for the program, participation is voluntary. “Having SAIL available across the Navy is a great addition to the ongoing work that commands are doing to promote help-seeking behavior, self-care, and support for our sailors who reach out for assistance,” said Captain Michael Fisher, director of the Navy Suicide Prevention Branch.

Read more on News4JAX.com. Read more about SAIL.