AUCD Resources on the Life course

The Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) funded through the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), has released resources on the life course model for students, teachers, and others for use in professional development or to aid in presenting.

This site includes a health equity quiz, case studies on the life course perspective, and a slide and webinar library. These continuing education tools are helpful for anyone wanting to learn more about this theory. Check it out and send suggestions, additions or feedback to the developers!

http://www.aucd.org/template/page.cfm?id=768

2012 Summer Institute on Adolescent Health: Equal Access, Equal Say: Achieving Health Equity for all Young People

The Center for Leadership Education in Maternal and Child Public Health, in partnership with the Center for Adolescent Nursing, the Minnesota Department of Education, the Healthy Youth Development-Prevention Research Center, the Minnesota Department of Health, and Teenwise Minnesota, is pleased to announce the 2012 Summer Institute on Adolescent Health.

When: July 30- August 2, 2012

Where: Minnesota Department of Health, Snelling Office Park, Minnesota Department of Health Snelling Office Park, 1645 Energy Park Drive, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108

Cost: $250

Register at:
http://www.nursing.umn.edu/Adolescent_Nursing/Continuing_Education/home.html
.

Change – the one word that best epitomizes adolescence – changing bodies, changing schools, changing friends. While change is essential for healthy transitions to adulthood, it can also increase vulnerability. For young people today, inequitable social conditions in families, schools, and communities can lead to dramatically differing pathways to adulthood, some healthier than others. Inequities in social determinants of health abound – socio-economic status, housing, physical environment, food security, neighborhood safety, social support, health care services, transportation, and working conditions, to name a few.

What helps all young people achieve their highest level of health? Assuring optimal health for all requires equalizing the conditions for health – life-skills, access to quality services, educational attainment, readiness for gainful employment, and opportunities to contribute to their communities in positive ways. This means that we must pay attention to creating services and programs that are accessible, acceptable, appropriate, and effective.

During the 2012 Summer Institute in Adolescent Health, consider the myriad of social, political, educational, environmental, and economic conditions that underlie disparities in health. Visit settings that are successfully addressing avoidable inequalities that impact adolescents. Talk with young people and their program leaders along with health providers and educators who have walked the talk of health equity in just, creative, and empowering ways. Learn strategies for assuring supportive environments, sustaining authentic relationships, and providing services that are responsive to the uniqueness of each young person. Gain new skills to effectively advocate for health equity among all young people.

Who should attend?

All who work with young people – teachers, coaches, and administrators; nurses, physicians, nutritionists, psychologists, social workers, counselors, and youth workers; religious leaders and policy makers.

Contact hours and two graduate credits are available (graduate students only).

Strong Foundations: Minnesota’s Birth to Three Institute for Healthy Development

The Center for Leadership Education in Maternal and Child Public Health, the Center for Early Education and Development, the Minnesota Department of Health, the Minnesota Department of Human Services and the Minnesota Department of Education are excited to sponsor Strong Foundations: Minnesota’s Birth to Three Institute for Healthy Development.

The purpose of this institute is to strengthen the knowledge, skills, strategies, and alliances of those who work with expectant families, infants, toddlers, parents and communities to build a strong foundation for healthy development.

When: May 30-31, 2012

Where: Earle Brown Heritage Center, 6155 Earle Brown Drive, Minneapolis, MN

Cost: $195; $165/students. Limited scholarships are available.

Register at:
http://www.cehd.umn.edu/CEED/conferences/strongfoundations/default.html

Keynote Speakers include:

• Sondra Samuels, Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) President and Chief Executive Officer

Cradle to College is the cornerstone of the work of the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ). Focusing on the importance of community leadership and family engagement, as well as starting early (prenatally), Sondra asserts that taking a life course perspective will positively impact the achievement of all children.

• Sasha Silveanu, Washington State Family Policy Council, Policy Analyst and Story Tracker

A Powerful Framework will share examples of how communities in Washington State have applied a science-based framework to fuel practice and policy changes. Sasha and her colleagues’ work include strengthening foundations for positive early childhood development; responding to ACEs with innovation and informed care; making accommodations for people, including parents and their children, with high ACEs; and improving response to ACEs focused on resilience and positive adaptation. She will share examples from–but not limited to–the education, social work, child care, mental health, home-visiting, and public health sectors.

Contact hours and graduate credits are available (graduate students only).

Love from AMCHP!

Happy Valentine’s Day! Welcome to our up-coming series on the 2012 Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) Annual Conference! Over a dozen students here in Washington D.C. have represented Minnesota’s MCH program. If you did not have the opportunity to attend, stop on by to hear about participants’ experiences. Today is the last day of this MCH-focused meeting.

As attendees, we went to power workshops and skills-building sessions in between catching-up with one another. We networked, talking to influential leaders in our field and building relationships with alumni, MCH workers from Minnesota, and leaders from around the nation. Some of us are trying to get our name out there and learn of possible opportunities before us as we near graduation. Others explored national issues for the first time, focusing on how various state agencies are addressing MCH Competencies.

Come back for pictures in the coming days, as well as reflections from students who attended in the conference. We look forward to using our new knowledge to teach others and create change in the field.

In celebration of Valentines’ Day, give your heart some love today. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in all males and females. Take some time to get your blood pressure checked and urge your family, friends and co-workers to do the same.

MCH Student Annie Fedorowicz on her first Professional Presentation

A hundred different thoughts were racing through my head as I waited to give my first professional presentation at the 2^nd annual Making Lifelong Connections meeting… Will I remember to take a breath and slow down? How do I connect with the audience? I have to remember not to read the slides and just tell my story. Do I really have something to contribute to this field?

Luckily, all my worries were quelled as I told a room full of Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) current and former trainees about my field-experience as data collector on the Mobile Youth Survey (MYS), and discussed how my interactions with participants and their families shaped my secondary data analysis. My analysis examines the influence of hopelessness and self-worth on pregnancy feelings and intention among sexually-active adolescents in Mobile, Alabama. I witnessed how environmental stresses of poverty, poor housing, and neighborhood violence influences adolescents’ decisions to engage in high-risk behaviors and how these factors affect their feelings of self, community connections, and peer and parental relationships. I told the audience about conversations I had with adolescents and their care-givers (mostly mothers and grandmothers), reflecting on how those conversations led me to my research question and provided me with a context for interpreting my research findings. I emphasized the importance of examining adolescent health holistically, through understanding the intersectionality of the social influences and feelings of self. This holistic approach informs research that examines the etiology of risk-taking behaviors, such as adolescent feelings about being involved in a pregnancy as a distinct outcome, which ultimately informs future sexual decision-making that could lead to a pregnancy.

After my presentation, I had wonderful conversations with MCH professionals that work with adolescents. We discussed how more health research needs to focus on the process of decision-making or lack of decision-making as a distinct outcome. Many of them had worked on adolescent pregnancy prevention initiatives that solely focused on access and behavioral modification through providing sexual health information. They see a gap in this type of programming that fails to address the complexities of adolescent feelings towards pregnancy, which is shaped by psychosocial factors. Through these conversations, I became more confident that my research would contribute valuable information about adolescent pregnancy feelings and intention. I was also able to connect with professionals working at the University of Alabama who had grown-up in the state. They reflected on their experiences as adolescents and validated some of the field observations that I shared in my presentation.

Professional connections were also spurred through my presentation, as I provided adolescent health professionals with information on other MYS published studies and they provided me with helpful job search advice. Several Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) fellows provided me with tips on how to communicate my data collection and research experience in job interviews. LEAH fellows receive extensive training on public health policy and programmatic communication. They also have extensive knowledge on adolescent health theories and current practice, such as utilizing a healthy youth development framework in designing programs that promote protective factors that negate sexual risk-taking behaviors among adolescents. It was helpful to see how my analysis fit into the larger discourse of adolescent health.

Overall, my first presentation experience exceeded my expectations. I was able to use my MCH training and skills to execute a secondary data-analysis and more importantly, translate my research findings into an engaging presentation to share with leading MCH professionals. The goals of the MCHB annual meeting were to provide leadership development and networking opportunities. I met both goals through presenting and attending this meeting. I now feel ready to join this skilled cohort of MCH leaders in the field.

Annie Fedorowicz is an MPH student at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. She is currently writing her Master’s paper for her Maternal and Child Health degree on hopelessness and self-worth on pregnancy feelings and intention among sexually-active adolescents in Mobile, Alabama.