from the Center for Leadership Education in Maternal and Child Public Health at the University of Minnesota
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Today the American Public Health Association joins Research!America to celebrate Public Health Thank You Day. Thank you to all the public health professionals working in illness, disease, and injury prevention efforts. Your work has helped better the health of mothers, fathers, families, children, women and men both domestically and globally.
Take some time to thank your colleague or loved one! http://www.publichealththankyouday.org/.
With American Public Health Association’s (APHA) annual conference complete, take a look at the general opening session on their YouTube Channel. Below is Jonathan Jarvis from the National Park Service:
Additional videos include Pamela Hyde from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), former U.S. Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, APHA president Linda Rae Murray, and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Risa Lavizzo-Mourey. Videos of attendees’ experiences are also available.
APHA will also add scientific sessions to their website if you missed any or are would like to view presentations. If you attended the conference and have any thoughts or reflections, send an email to our center! We would love to hear from you and can post to the blog: mch@umn.edu.
I started off the morning by attending a presentation called Policy and Advocacy in Maternal and Child Health. This insightful session at the American Public Health Association’s annual conference included a staffer from Capitol Hill who works on the health subcommittee as a previous public health professional. She taught us tricks to engaging our Congress members, in order for them to hear our concerns as constituents.
During this session, Brent Ewig from the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) also reminded us of a statement that was offered at the opening session of APHA’s conference: “If Schools of Public Health are only teaching students the power of p-values, we miss the importance of policy and advocacy in bettering the health of our nation.” This statement has stuck with me throughout the day. As a student in a public health program, I have been taught how to interpret research, how to conduct it, as well as of its importance in the field. However, research’s significance will not be appreciated if we do not know how to implement it into policy and programs; it will sit on the shelf, never to be applied. Getting the opportunity to attend APHA’s conference this year allowed me to close this gap in understanding how research and policy must work together. I hope to share this learning process among students who were unable to attend these presentations, and in the future work to help the two fields collaborate on the same goal of promoting the health of women, families, and children.
If you we unable to attend APHA this year, tomorrow is the last day of the conference; however, resources, links, and videos of various sessions are uploaded daily, so check-it out their website! http://www.apha.org/meetings.htm
Sitting on the floor in a crowded room of public health professionals, everyone gathered at American Public Health Association’s annual conference (day 2) to hear about social media and its application in promoting health. With people standing against walls and overflowing into the hallway, Miguel Gomez from AIDS.gov started his presentation describing how and when people want to find their health information. As someone who works to increase awareness in Maternal and Child Health topics, it was interesting learning about how to broaden appeal to our audience. Thinking about your audience, objectives and strategy before the technology should be our primary process. Repurposing brand and campaigns for Twitter, Facebook, and blogging as well as for mobile versus desktop use should also be of concern.
Erin Edgerton, Director of New Media and Strategic Communication, extended the presentation by describing 10 tips to using social media, including knowing your audience, utilizing people’s time effectively, and having fun in posts. These tips were useful in thinking about creating health campaigns, especially for youth. This theme was also touched on in a meeting on the correlation between alcohol and tobacco use.
In my Bars, Booze, and Butts: the Interplay of Alcohol and Tobacco session today, Jeff Jordan from Rescue Social Change Group discussed his approach to stopping tobacco use in young adults. By targeting trendsetters in bar and social settings, he believes that we can change the “cool” culture around smoking in this population. Local artists work to create anti-smoking campaigns in order to promote bar interventions.
Although I attended other sessions, today was filled with learning how to apply and create specific campaigns to promote health and better the status of young people. I’ll be updating about the continued progress throughout week, so keep coming back for posts!
Hello from Washington D.C.! site of the American Public Health Association’s (APHA) annual conference. With snow in October, much of the east coast faced a shock, including me coming from Minnesota, but even more so for others in warmer areas of the country. The first day was filled with networking, starting at the Association of Teachers of Maternal and Child Health (ATMCH) student faculty breakfast. Here, faculty from MCH programs around the U.S. sat down with us trainees to discuss our interests and learn about research going at various schools. Immediately, I was able to connect with the MCH identity in a conference that hosts over 13,000 health professionals from multiple fields.
Next on the schedule was a town hall meeting, discussing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and MCH. Policy experts from the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) and law and public health professionals discussed implications for funding, the ACA, and women’s health. Funding was a common theme today, as well as policy change, reflecting the atmosphere of being in our nations capital. Senator Tom Daschle continued this during the opening session, advocating on public health’s behalf, noting how much the U.S. spends on healthcare compared to other countries.
Jonathan Jarvis, Director of the National Park Service, also gave a unique speech during this opening session. He argued of the importance of reconnecting with nature, in order to better the health of our nation. Parks are free areas for people to walk or bike, however due to the current “park desert” phenomenon in many major cities especially, people have been less able to enjoy the power of nature. His mission to change this is a unique perspective that demands more attention.
The first day ended by attending APHA’s MCH section meeting, learning about opportunities and work the group is doing for the field. I had the chance to collaborate with professionals around the country doing a broad range of work, from breastfeeding advocates, to a doctor from the American Academy of Pediatrics. After a first full day, I look forward to what the week will bring. Keep coming back for updates about the meeting and my experience!
