OMHHE Weekly Newsletter  
March 8 - 14, 2015  

In This Issue
Upcoming Events
Webinar: Impact of a Rural Health Network
March 26, 2015
Register here!

Effective Strategies to Improve Health Care for Hispanics in our Local Communities
March 27 - 29, 2015
Washington D.C. 
Click here to register!

Webinar: Impact of a Community Health Center (FQHC) or Rural Health Clinic
April 30, 2015
Registration Details Coming Soon!

National Rural EMS Conference: Building Collaboration and Leadership for the Future
May 5-6, 2015
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Funding Opportunities
Appalachia Culture of Health Research
RAC

Tribal Sexual Assault Services Program (Tribal SASP)
RAC

BUILD Health Challenge - Community Health Collaborations
Multiple Funders

Supporting Community Health Resources - Building Capacity, Expanding Access, and Improving Population Health Grant Program
DHMH/MCHRC

Understanding and Promoting Health Literacy
National Institutes of Health

Innovations for Healthy Living - Improving Minority Health and Eliminating Health Disparities
RAC

Rural Health Care Services Outreach Program
HRSA

Healthy, Active Native Communities Capacity Building Funding Opportunity
RAC
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Has your faith-based organization joined  Virginia's 100 Congregations for Million Hearts yet?  T
he #MillionHeartsChallenge is in full swing with a goal to sign up 100 Virginia congregations during 2015.  Invite your faith-based organization on board today! All denominations and geographical  locations welcome! Check out the website to learn more!
General Information

Join the 1Day Stand Against Smoking and Tobacco Use on March 18, 2015!

More than 1,514 campuses nationwide have a 100 percent smoke- or tobacco-free policy in place. Through the Fresh Air Campus Challenge and the TFCCI Challenge, the Tobacco-Free College Campus Initiative is encouraging campuses to

take a 1Day Stand on March 18 to celebrate the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids' KickButtsDay (KBD)! Building on KBD's mission of helping people kick the habit for one day, the 1Day Stand calls upon college campuses to adopt a tobacco-free policy for one day.


By hosting a 1Day Stand event at your campus, you can start a conversation that ends in a safer and healthier campus for all. The goals for the event are to:

  • Encourage students who use tobacco to quit for the day, with an aim to quit for good
  • Raise awareness of the benefits of tobacco-free campus policies
  • Promote the adoption of permanent smoke- and tobacco-free campus policies

Is your campus taking a 1Day Stand on March 18? If so, please register your event to receive updates and information. Click HERE to register.


On-Demand Continuing Education Webinars Available for Nurses, Nurse Practitioners and Nurse Educators

AHRQ offers Web-based continuing education for nurses, nurse practitioners, case managers, staff educators and nurse practitioner faculty. Eligible professionals can view recorded webinars that highlight resources such as the National Guidelines Clearinghouse, the Electronic Preventive Services Selector and the Improving Patient Safety in Long-Term Care Facilities training modules. The webinars offer practical insights on how these resources can be integrated into education and practice.  Registration is open.

Health Equity 
Grundy seeks to reclaim its health and reputation
Roanoke Times, March 8, 2015

A town is only as well as its people. But measuring a community's health is far more complicated than lining up the residents and measuring their waist lines, cholesterol and blood pressure - or counting the number of people drawing a disability check.

 

So when a national publication recently pegged Grundy, a small town in far Southwest Virginia, as the "sickest town in America" based mostly on the number of former coal miners in surrounding Buchanan County eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance, the community's leaders were incensed. Their community has its challenges, they said, but no more so than other places in America.

Read more here!

Why Health Care Is Different If You're Black, Latino Or Poor
Forbes, March 5, 2015

The country is in a state of health care denial. Politicians, pundits and executives proudly declare America's medical care is the best in the world. But it isn't.

 

The U.S. lags behind other industrialized nations in many important health measures - partly because citizens of certain races, ethnicities and incomes experience poorer versions of U.S. health care than others. The disparities are glaring. The solutions aren't nearly as obvious - but we'll explore some of the best ones in this article.

Read more here!

Tiny minority of Chinese adults enjoy ideal heart health
Medical Xpress, March 9, 2015

Nearly three out of four Chinese adults have poor cardiovascular health, with poor diet and growing rates of obesity compounding the risks associated with continuing high rates of smoking, according to a new survey published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

 

The 2010 China Noncommunicable Disease Surveillance Group collected cardiovascular health data from a nationally representative sample of more than 96,000 men and women in the general Chinese population. According to estimates derived from the survey results, just 0.2 percent of Chinese men and women enjoy "ideal" cardiovascular health as defined by the American Heart Association's seven health behaviors/health factors.


Gov. McAuliffe Announces Project to Combat Childhood Hunger 
NBC29.com, March 9, 2015

Governor Terry McAuliffe announced on Monday, March 9, that Virginia will receive $8.8 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to tackle childhood hunger in the commonwealth.

Schools districts in high poverty areas will put new programs in place to feed children year-round. However, the governor says the problem is widespread.

 

"You cannot be competitive on a global basis if your children are hungry," said Gov. McAuliffe.

 

Funding will go to districts in parts of southwest Virginia and the city of Richmond to ensure kids get three meals a day, plus food for weekends, breaks and even during summer vacation.

Read more here!

Disparities in health care exist but so do opportunities
Black Engineer, March 7, 2015

The subject of minorities and health care frequently focuses on the disparities in access and illnesses and diseases prevalent among minority populations. But what about minorities and healthcare jobs and careers?
 

According to experts, there's a lack of diversity in the health care workforce. In 2003, a national commission was assembled to study the problem and in 2004 released "Missing Persons: Minorities in the Health Professions."

Read more here!

Fighting Childhood Obesity Among Native Americans
Newswise, March 3, 2015

Strengthening Native American families will help improve their children's health-that's the premise behind a research study targeting 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds and their caregivers on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

 

The one-year pilot study will determine whether an evidence-based Strengthening Families Program for preschoolers can improve the children's social, emotional and nutritional health. 

Read more here!
Rural Health
This Is Where Young People Are More Likely to Commit Suicide
Time, March 9, 2015

Young people who live in rural areas kill themselves at twice the rate as youth who live in cities, according to a new study in the journalJAMA Pediatrics.

 

There aren't clear-cut explanations for suicide, but geographical differences seem to play a role, the researchers found. People who live in rural areas have less access to mental-health services, more stigma surrounding help-seeking and freer access to guns than their urban counterparts.

Read more here!

USDA Rural Development offers grants, loans
Batesville Herald Tribune, March 10, 2015

When President Obama's recent proposed goal of increasing the number of law enforcement body worn cameras by 50,000, USDA Rural Development is reminding Indiana rural police departments of its Community Programs resources, which can provide funding assistance for police gear such as body worn cameras. 

 

Additionally, the program can help fund construction of police stations, fire and rescue stations, police and fire vehicles and first responder equipment and gear. 


Youth suicide: rural toll rising more than urban, including by gun 
Medical News Today, March 10, 2015

The number of suicides in the US, among the age group that includes all children from the age of 10, up to all young adults to the age of 24, were collated by county and put through a statistical analysis for research published in JAMA Pediatrics.

 

A higher rate in the most rural counties was by a factor of 2.05 for males compared with the most urban areas in 1996-1998 - and this rural differential rose in 2008-2010, to 2.69 times the rate in urban areas for male suicide deaths committed by gun.

Read more here!

Report says rural hospitals get billions in extra Medicare funds
Columbia Missourian, March 9, 2015

A law that allows rural hospitals to bill Medicare for rehabilitation services for seniors at higher rates than nursing homes and other facilities has led to billions of dollars in extra government spending, federal investigators say.

 

Most patients could have been moved to a skilled-nursing facility within 35 miles of the hospital at about one-fourth the cost, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' inspector general said in a report being released Monday. Hospitals juggling tough balance sheets have come to view such "swing-bed" patients as lucrative, fueling a steady rise in the number of people getting such care and costing Medicare an additional $4.1 billion over six years, the report said.

Read more here!

Bill Keeps Rural Hospitals Open 
WHOtv.com, March 9, 2015

Last week Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley introduced a bill to extend a Medicare demonstration program that helps rural hospitals in sparsely populated states keep their doors open.

 

The Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program started in 2004 and has been renewed every five years to assist rural hospitals in the 20 least populated states, including Iowa.

Read more here!

Teamwork, technology, creativity: Rural clinics confront challenges by reimagining community roles
Winona Daily News, March 8, 2015

Nicholas Modjeski grew up on a farm, so when he went to medical school he made sure to do some rotations at rural hospitals.

 

He liked the team-based approach to medicine there, and the wide variety of patients he could help.

 

Now a family medicine doctor at Winona Health, Modjeski said he jumped at the opportunity to start seeing patients at the Rushford Clinic, which serves a town of about 1,700 and the surrounding area.

Read more here!

LGBT people in rural areas struggle to find good medical care
CNN.com, March 6, 2015

When Ryan Sallans, an activist in the Nebraska transgender community, first went to the doctor in 2005 to talk about what he medically needed to do for his gender transition, his doctor wanted to offer medical help. That was the good news.

 

The disconcerting news was the doctor had to Google the issue first to figure out the best medical advice.

Read more here!
Tools and Resources
The White House recently published My Brother's Keeper Task Force document which provides the one year progress on the initiative to address disparities among young men of color. The Women of Color Health Data Book, Fourth Edition was released last month by the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health, which leads the development of this collection and presentation of data on race/ethnicity and disease.  A webinar recording is now available for the 2014 Update of the Rural-Urban Chartbook from Rural Health Research & Policy Centers. The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services recently released the CLAS Academy Training Catalog.