healthy people 2020 - Society for Public Health Education

✯ Conference Abstracts ✯
friday | november 5
Health Disparities Curriculum. Adapted from an evaluated heart-disease
curriculum, this new and highly participatory curriculum is designed
to educate students that the health of an individual is embedded within
a broader social context; show students how the health of a community
is shaped by resources (goods and services) and policies, which when
distributed unequally can create health disparities; and empower students
to address health disparities by advocating for change in their communities.
The ten curriculum lessons are divided into three units: 1) introduction
to public health and health disparities 2) community inventory
(asset mapping) and 3) public health advocacy. The curriculum is rooted
in educational theory, aligns with state education standards, and can be
implemented by instructors with minimal training. Lessons may be taught
independently or comprehensively and are adaptable to multiple settings
(e.g. intact classrooms or after school clubs). Activities are low cost and not
reliant on technology. Using baseline and post-intervention surveys as well
as focus groups, the curriculum is being evaluated with 60 low-income,
predominately Latino high school sophomores. Dissemination plans
include expanding the curriculum within the existing partner school and
ten schools in the district as well as posting it to the program’s website. The
Stanford Medical Youth Science Program’s Health Disparities Curriculum
has great potential to leverage the power of high school students to enact
change within communities thus reducing health disparities.
The Adaption and Implementation of Evidence-Based
Asthma Interventions to Address Asthma Morbidity in
Post Katrina New Orleans.
Eleanor Thornton, MS, CHES, AE-C, President and CEO,
Visionary Consulting Partners, LLC.
background: Children residing in post-Katrina New Orleans experienced
an overwhelming disruption of quality of life, psychosocial
stressors, limited access to care and exposure to numerous environmental
hazards. These factors greatly elevated their risk for asthma morbidity and
required an aggressive multi-prong approach utilizing evidenced-based
asthma interventions and engaging public-private partners including
federal and local government agencies, academic institutions, and a private
foundation. The challenges and uniqueness of the community environment
required collaborative, flexible and realistic strategies modeled after
evidenced based programs to effectively address the needs of the population.
The objective of this study was to implement and evaluate a novel
asthma counselor intervention in a post-natural disaster setting.
methods: 182 children 4-12 years of age with moderate-severe asthma
were enrolled in an observational study, Head-Off Environmental
Asthma in Louisiana study (HEAL) and were followed for one year in a
hybrid asthma counselor intervention. Key components proven effective
in reducing asthma morbidity in children from the evidenced based
National Cooperative Inner-City Asthma Study and the Inner City
Asthma environmental intervention were combined, adapted and
implemented. The Intervention was based on the child’s clinical and
environmental risk profile and included a minimum of two tailored
individualized asthma counseling sessions with a home visit, a minimum
of 2 telephone contacts and environmental supplies to assist with remediation
of environmental exposures. The multidisciplinary intervention
team was comprised of and conducted by nontraditional asthma counselors
such as certified health education specialists with the assistance
of community health workers that were trained in asthma management
and identification of barriers and strategies to address issues impeding
appropriate asthma management.
implication of research results for enhanced practice:
Preliminary analysis of the intervention suggests a strong effect. The post
Katrina environment presented an ideal environment to test the hybrid
asthma counseling intervention. The intervention can serve as an excellent
resource or roadmap for replication in communities/systems facing
similar emergent needs in reducing asthma morbidity.
current sessions b4
Room: Colorado G-H
a health educator’s call to action:
emergency preparedness and response
CDC’s Challenges and Successes in Providing Public Health
Information During the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.
Daniel L. Holcomb, ATSDR, Senior Environmental Health Scientist, Emergency
Response Coordinator, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
This presentation will describe the challenges and lessons learned from the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) response to the
Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and subsequent oil spill. The author
will describe how the CDC coordinated with other federal and private
agencies to assist local and state public health officials in delivering vital
public information during this technological disaster. The author will also
describe the various methods of communication that CDC employed during
this response. Lessons learned through experience regarding communicating
in disasters will be covered in this presentation.
Pandemic Preparedness and Response: The New Jersey Experience.
Suzanne Miro, MPH, CHES, New Jersey Department of Health & Senior Services
This presentation will give a brief overview of pandemic preparedness
efforts conducted in New Jersey prior to the emergence of the 2009-2010
H1N1 pandemic including public health planning and public education.
As the H1N1 event unfolded, attention turned to mass distribution of
actionable information to the public as well as health care providers and
public health officials. Given the evolving nature of the pandemic, the
communications response was fought with challenges and lessons learned.
SNAPS: Community Demographic Profiles in a Snap Through
an Interactive Situational Awareness Tool.
Gail Williams, MPH, CHES, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/
Division of Emergency Operations
SNAPS is an interactive online tool linked to a public satellite-based
mapping tool (Bing) overlaid with census information. SNAPS was
developed to allow the Community Health Outreach and Education
team of the CDC’s Division of Emergency Operations (DEO)branch
to quickly collect important demographic and resource information of
affected communities. When emergency strikes in the United States,
SNAPS information is used to determine communication needs for area
residents as well as potential sources of emergency resources such as
hospitals and shelters, where vulnerable populations such as the elderly
or non-English speaking residents may be located and potential evacuation
locations such as colleges or universities. SNAPS combines new
electronic technology with census data in order to access quick snapshots
of demographic makeup. SNAPS format allows for quick assembly
of reports detailing specific community assets. Initially developed by
CDC DEO Community Outreach and Education Team for use during
emergency activations, it quickly became clear that SNAPS could greatly
benefit those in the general public not just for emergency assessment but
for initial community needs assessments and asset mapping. Appropriate
for those in emergency preparedness as well as general health educators,
this session will introduce participants to the SNAPS tool, and demonstrate
its applicability in emergency and community needs assessments.
sophe conference ✯ november 4-6, 2010 25