COVID-19 has turned eyes towards public health like never before. Knowing what an opportunity this is for public health to help communities recognize the value their local health departments provide as well as shine a spotlight on the services offered by public health, we thought we'd interview Karen Martin about standardized terminology, such as the [...]
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) or Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) can usually be categorized as either "installed" or "web-based"/"cloud-based". An installed software is stored on your agency’s local computers, whereas a web-based software is stored in the cloud. The word "cloud" refers to using online applications which manage and store your data in remote servers spread [...]
What are ACEs? According to the CDC, “Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood (0-17 years) such as experiencing violence, abuse, or neglect; witnessing violence in the home; and having a family member attempt or die by suicide. Also included are aspects of the child’s environment that can undermine [...]
In September, 2018, FDA Commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, MD addressed the growing use of e-cigarettes among teenagers as an epidemic. "Unfortunately, I now have good reason to believe that it's reached nothing short of an epidemic proportion of growth. I use the word epidemic with great care. E-cigs have become an almost ubiquitous ‒ and dangerous ‒ [...]
We hope you've been following our blog article series on public health as the community chief health strategist. If you read our recent blog article, "What is a Chief Health Strategist," then you may remember that we shared an example of a local health department that was taking on the role of chief health strategist [...]
Public health practice is being enhanced and broadened as pioneering local public health departments shift focus to address social determinants of health (or upstream determinants of health), collaborate across non-traditional sectors, and embrace the role of the Chief Health Strategist. Both public health practice and policy are transforming to address changing population health challenges. This [...]
If you've read our article, "What is a Chief Health Strategist?" then you may be wondering why your health department should fill the role of the chief health strategist for your community. The US Department of Health & Human Services has issued a challenge to public health workers, “Public health leaders should embrace the role [...]
Perhaps you’ve been surrounded lately by discussions about Healthy People 2020 or Public Health 3.0 and how your health department can achieve it. Public health practice is being enhanced and broadened as pioneering local public health departments shift focus to address social determinants of health (or upstream determinants of health) and collaboration across non-traditional sectors, [...]
If you're interested in learning a bit more about Public Health 3.0, you're not alone. While there are many health departments across the country already implementing the goals of Public Health 3.0, there are still many health departments who are unsure where to begin or may have never even heard the term. This article will [...]
How to Employ Trauma-Informed Practice In Part 1 of this article, I shared about a webinar I attended on trauma-informed practice, hosted by the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice out of the University of Washington titled, "Trauma-Informed Practice - A Rural Perspective". The presenter was Karolyn Holden, BSN, RN, Director of Grays Harbor County [...]