Preparing a People: Climate Change and Public Health

Initial public health response and interim clinical guidance for the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak - United States, December 31, 2019-February 4, 2020.

Objectives. To determine if and how state and local public health departments present information about climate change on their Web sites, their most public-facing platform.Methods. We collected data from every functioning state (n = 50), county (n = 2090), and city (n = 585) public health department Web site in the United States in 2019 and 2020. We analyzed data for presence and type of climate-related content and to determine whether there existed clear ways to find climate change information. We analyzed Web sites providing original content about climate change for explanatory or attributional language.Results. Fewer than half (40%) of state health department Web sites, and only 1.6% of county and 3.9% of city Web sites, provided clear ways to find climate change information, whether through provision of original content or links to external agencies' Web sites. Among Web sites providing original content, 48% provided no explanation of climate change causes.Conclusions. National and global public health associations have identified climate change as a public health emergency, but most state and local public health departments are not delivering that message. These departments must be better supported to facilitate dissemination of reliable, scientific information about climate change and its effects on health.

The following narrative describes the innovative partnership and approach to create comprehensive, meaningful, and coordinated community health assessments and community health improvement plans that fulfill the specific needs of hospital systems, local public health, and coordinated care organizations (Oregon’s version of Accountable Care Organizations).

If we are really about public health, we have to go where the people are, and they are in the communities on their phones. Rex Archer, MD, MPH, Director of Health, City of Kansas City, Missouri Health Department Without a doubt, social media is now the primary place to share photographs, rant about politics, and connect with high school friends. But it is much more than that. Social media has changed the way we communicate personally and professionally,1 and a growing majority of Americans (72%) use social media.2 Successful organizations have found ways to leverage social media to improve internal and external communications, recruitment, employee engagement, and professional development. Many local public health departments are finding success in leveraging social media, particularly Twitter, to engage with audiences that may otherwise be difficult to reach.3 One agency that has intentionally incorporated social media into its culture is the City of Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department. "Engaging with our community is top priority, and social media is an essential tool for that," said Michelle Pekarsky, the department's public information officer. "There are many conversations on social media in which public health should, and even has a responsibility to, participate. Using video, images, humor, and messaging, we join the conversation and give public health a louder voice." Health departments use social media to share health messaging, combat misinformation, engage with community members, and advocate to improve community health. Success factors for many of these efforts include tailored messaging for specific audiences, meaningful engagement (not just one-way communications), strategic use of influential messengers, employee engagement, and defined goals and metrics. Beyond traditional health education, social media provides an opportunity to make public health relevant, accessible, and even fun. One strategy the Kansas City Health Department has used is leveraging pop culture news, such as Forbes naming Kylie Jenner the youngest self-made billionaire and the unexpected death of Luke Perry from a massive stroke, to talk about health and social justice issues with an otherwise unengaged audience. For agencies that want to get started or expand their use of social media, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) has created a useful guide, the Social Media Toolkit: A Primer for Local Health Department PIOs and Communications Professionals.4 "Compared with just a few years ago, we're seeing more agencies integrating social media into their strategic outreach," said Andrea Grenadier, a marketing and communications specialist at NACCHO who helped produce the toolkit. "While some health departments may be missing opportunities to educate the public and engage with audiences, we are seeing more public health departments coming online, even though they may not have dedicated staff to manage social media, and their efforts are just beginning." Concerns About Social Media Use Allowing and encouraging social media use is a powerful way to engage employees as ambassadors for your mission. But some organizations, including many state and local government agencies, have been reluctant to embrace social media beyond accounts managed by communications staff with a rigid review process. Some of the reasons health departments have been conservative in their use of social media are concerns about the following: Lost productivity, because employees will waste time. Security risks, often expressed by information technology (IT) staff. Privacy concerns, often from legal teams. Negative public response to a post by the organization or an employee. While some departments still grapple with the concerns of social media, in 2019, not using social media is not an option. Here's why: People are having conversations online about public health issues every day, and social media is an easy, effective way to engage in those conversations. People are talking about your agency and its work whether you like it or not. Social media allows you to know and understand what people are saying. Social media has become the go-to source for information; public health should be engaged to ensure the correct information is being shared and to counter misinformation with facts. Potential Benefits of Social Media Use by Employees Organizations that allow employees to support their agencies with social media can see the following benefits, among others: Attract and retain staff. More than 90% of organizations use social media channels for recruiting5—making them more common than job boards, advertising, employee referrals, recruiting agencies, and events. Through their use of social media, your employees can extend the reach of your human resources department in attracting talented professionals. Millennials have grown up using social media, and they understand how it can be applied to support your agency's mission. Banning social media will reduce their potential impact and may make your workplace less appealing for current and potential employees. Encourage professional development and connections. Some people think of LinkedIn as a tool for finding a new job, but it is much more than that. Professionally, people use LinkedIn to form strategic relationships, connect with partners, and share ideas. Twitter has communities that host substantive discussions and foster relationships locally, nationally, and internationally. Expand the reach and impact of your external communications. Through social media, all employees (not just communications staff) can share your reports, data, and health advisories. In addition to communicating health news, they can play an important and influential role in dispelling misinformation. Reach targeted audiences more effectively. Twitter and other social media tools also allow for communications that are more targeted than traditional media list TV, radio, and newspapers. Using advanced search functions, public health officials can detect regions where people are talking about a topic, like the influenza, and respond accordingly. Employees can amplify your messaging in their own words and to their own networks, which can be more influential than an "official" account. And social media is a cost-effective way to test the effectiveness of your messaging. Establish the expertise of your agency and employees. Journal authors can use social media to help bridge the gap between research and practice, add evidence-based research to combat misinformation, stay informed about breaking public health communications, and connect with a much wider audience than most print journals will reach. See "5 Reasons Journal Authors Should Embrace Social Media" from JPHMP Direct.6 How to Build a Supportive Environment To address concerns about productivity, security, and privacy, agencies can take the following steps: Demonstrate support from the top. For Kansas City's health department, social media is a critical part of its communications and operations, which has been possible because of the strong support of its director and leadership team. The question for health managers should not be whether the agency should use social media but how to constantly feed the communication channels. Develop a clear policy regarding social media use. Let employees know what is allowed, what is not, and the consequences for breaking the rules. Development of a policy should involve all relevant perspectives—communications, legal, IT, human resources, and others. Offer training. If you want employees to promote your mission responsibly, provide training about acceptable ways to use social media. This should include both the do's and the don't's—the opportunities and also the potential risks. Monitor social media use. Monitoring is not just the job of the IT department. All managers should talk to their employees about the appropriate use of social media for their particular department or function and should keep track of what employees share. Keep your technology up to date. Just as agencies invest in technology to protect them from e-mail viruses and Web attacks, they need to ensure that their employees can safely use social media on agency computers, phones, and other devices. Social media is not a strategy itself, but it can be a valuable component of an agency's outreach efforts. Used strategically, it can help agencies advance their mission, improve communications, and engage meaningfully with their communities.

Public health departments are on the frontlines of protecting vulnerable groups and working to eliminate health disparities through prevention interventions, disease surveillance and community education. Exploration of the roles national, state and local health departments (LHDs) play in advancing climate change planning and actions to protect public health is a developing arena of research. This paper presents insights from local public health departments in California, USA on how they addressed the barriers to climate adaptation planning with support from the California Department of Public Health’s Office of Health Equity Climate Change and Health Equity Section (OHE), which administers the California Building Resilience Against Climate Effects Project (CalBRACE). With support from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Climate-Ready States and Cities Initiative (CRSCI), CalBRACE initiated an adaptation project to seed climate planning and actions in county health departments. In this study, we compared the barriers and strategies of twenty-two urban and rural LHDs and explored potential options for climate change adaptation in the public health framework. Using key informant interviews and document reviews, the results showed how engagement with CalBRACE’s Local Health Department Partnership on Climate Change influenced the county departments’ ability to overcome barriers to adaptation through the diversification of funding sources, the leveraging strategic collaborations, extensive public education and communication campaigns, and the development of political capital and champions. The lessons learned and recommendations from this research may provide pathways and practices for national, state and local level health departments to collaborate in developing protocols and integrating systems to respond to health-related climate change impacts, adaptation and implementation.

Moving the Field Forward: A Decade of Progress Implementing Health in All Policies in the United States.

The APhA Immunization Champion Awards recognize individuals and organizations in the pharmacy profession, and friends and allies of pharmacy, who have made outstanding efforts to improve vaccination rates within their communities.

Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) describes a set of practices that aim to prevent the spread of infections, including health care–associated infections (HAIs) and emerging infectious diseases—like COVID-19—in health care facilities and other congregate settings. IPC includes hand hygiene, use of personal protective equipment (PPE), safe injection practices, and proper environmental cleaning. The National Association of County and City Health Officials' (NACCHO) IPC Champion recognition aims to highlight the IPC achievements of local health departments (LHDs) and honor the staff leading this work. NACCHO IPC Champions are passionate, well-versed, and respected individuals working in local public health who are advancing infection prevention and control capacity, activities, guidelines, and engagement. They are knowledgeable and enthusiastic about infection prevention and control. They promote and lead HAI prevention initiatives by educating colleagues and partners, preventing and responding to outbreaks, solving problems, and leveraging lessons learned to improve policies and practices. IPC champions: Build and strengthen partnerships between local public health and facilities (health care and other congregate settings) in their communities to build trust and to develop a reputation as a community IPC resource; Facilitate communication between and across facilities to identify and stop interfacility transmission; Identify and respond to outbreaks in facilities of HAIs, including COVID-19; Strategize to proactively prevent infections and improve IPC efforts; Engage and educate internal staff and external partners to increase their buy-in and awareness of IPC; Apply lessons learned to improve policies and practices in their community—and potentially, across the state/country; and Speak up to illustrate the needs of LHDs in this work and to share experiences and insights. To date, NACCHO has featured the IPC work of health departments in Mobile County, Alabama, Prince George's County, Maryland, Fairfax County, Virginia, and DuPage County, Illinois. Individual spotlights have also recognized Dr Stephanie R. Black, Medical Director of the Communicable Disease Program at the Chicago Department of Public Health; Dr Matt Zahn, Medical Director for the Epidemiology, Assessment, and Immunization Program at the Orange County Health Care Agency in California; and Dr Dawn Terashita, Associate Director for the Acute Communicable Disease Control Program at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, for their impact promoting IPC practices in their community and beyond. Mobile County Health Department During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mobile County Health Department's (MCHD) Infection Prevention Team (IPT) utilized a community-centered approach to combat the spread of the virus in Alabama. They partnered with community organizations, local health care providers, K-12 schools, and other high-risk congregate settings to better understand the needs of underserved communities and provide essential epidemiological resources (eg, case investigations, contact tracing, data entry and surveillance, outbreak testing, and infection prevention education resources). They also worked with county-employed dentists to provide IPC information to facility partners early in the pandemic to support nursing homes and other congregate care settings. The IPT conducted more than 30 community-wide outreach events, which included the provision of more than 2500 rapid COVID-19 tests, as well as lodging and food for 700 COVID-positive members of the homeless community when local shelters were unable to provide isolated facilities. When staffing shortages, testing, and personal protective equipment (PPE) resource scarcity impacted long-term care facilities (LTCFs), the Mobile County stepped in to provide PPE and utilized their partnership with an ambulance service to provide tests. In addition to responding once an outbreak occurred, Mobile County's IPT worked to help LTCFs prepare more proactively for outbreaks by keeping regular contact on guidance updates, supply needs, and reporting regulations. Their efforts to strengthen relationships in this way have allowed partner facilities to request and receive support more frequently from the MCHD. Prince George's County Health Department The Fostering Local Infection Prevention Control & Capacity (FLIP-CC) Project Team was established as a cross-collaborative effort across the Health and Wellness Division, the Communicable and Vector-borne Disease Control Program, and the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Team at Prince George's County Health Department in Maryland. They credit the resultant diversity in skills and experiences with IPC as a major factor in their success mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic within their community. Throughout the pandemic, the FLIP-CC Team provided high-risk facilities with ongoing assessments, facilitated frequent meetings and communications, reviewed data to inform outbreak status protocols, and provided customized technical assistance on IPC for frontline workers. FLIP-CC also worked with the LHD's strike team to improve vaccination rates for the most vulnerable populations in their community, resulting in remarkable decreases in COVID-19 case rates and hospitalizations. Another significant accomplishment was the low to zero bloodstream infection rates reported from local dialysis facilities during this time, indicating that IPC practices communicated by FLIP-CC were in place and being followed properly. In utilizing direct feedback from local health care teams in dialysis, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities, the FLIP-CC Team was able to design specialized technical assistance and capacity-building activities. Facility directors also became more aware of the services provided by the LHD and viewed them as a reliable and trusted source of information that they could request resources from. Fairfax County Health Department In collaboration with state and national partners, the Fairfax County Health Department's Acute Communicable and Emerging Diseases (ACED) Program strategically built and maintained partnerships with local care facilities to disseminate IPC resources and guidance in Virginia. These partnerships fostered peer-to-peer sharing of best practices and lessons learned in Fairfax County such that they could inform and advise state-level stakeholders on measures to optimize IPC measures within their health care facilities. During the COVID-19 pandemic response, ACED's interactions with facilities expanded to include surveillance and reporting, more frequent site visits with an emphasis on ensuring compliance with mitigation measures, assessment of PPE use and other infection prevention measures, outbreak investigations, and support for tests and vaccinations. In addition to on-site communication, they expanded outreach to include monthly webinar meetings with LTCF partners to provide COVID-19, HAI, and antimicrobial resistance updates. The team's IPC work has also expanded to include collaborations and consultations with the County's correctional facility, homeless services programs, and shelters. The results of their efforts include improved disease reporting from LTCFs, resulting in the investigation of cases and prevention of further infection. The ACED Program's investment in building partnerships has also led to greater success in collecting data from local facilities. These partnerships have resulted in improved collaboration and involvement with activities such as Infection Control Assessment and Response visits, PPE training, and respiratory fit testing. LTCF staff and residents in Fairfax County also exceeded the national rates for early COVID-19 first-dose vaccination coverage as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released on February 5, 2021. DuPage County Health Department The DuPage County Health Department's HAI team was established in 2012 with support from NACCHO and the CDC to better identify and understand the impact of HAIs, multidrug-resistant organisms, and extensively drug-resistant organisms within their jurisdiction. Since then, they have had extensive on-site and remote engagement with local LTCFs to conduct point-prevalence surveys, infection control audits, and follow-up visits and provide educational support and infection prevention guidance resources in conjunction with the Illinois Department of Public Health staff. When the COVID-19 pandemic arose, the HAI team quickly shifted and expanded their focus to COVID-19 surveillance, investigation, and prevention and control activities in congregate health care facilities, educational settings, and business/workplaces in DuPage County, Illinois. They have improved relationships and responsiveness through regular outreach efforts and by continuing to identify partners and their team roles (eg, medical director, infection prevention designee, director of nursing, environmental services) in their consultation and outreach efforts toward multidisciplinary engagement. Internally, DuPage County Health Department functioned as a hub to receive and provide PPE to facilities in their jurisdiction, particularly LTCFs that experienced extreme PPE shortages for several months. Beyond infection prevention and control challenges, the DuPage County Health Department is also committed to addressing health inequities. The DuPage County COVID-19 Health Equity and Access Response Team (HEART) was established through a partnership between the DuPage Health Coalition, DuPage Federation for Human Services Reform, Impact DuPage, and the DuPage County Health Department. HEART provides a countywide voice for health equity and access, ensuring that all residents of DuPage County reach the highest level of health possible. Their most recent priorities include supporting and coordinating vaccination clinics through community outreach, multilingual COVID-19 vaccine surveys to assess COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and build confidence, and the recruitment of Health Ambassadors for public service announcements, interviews, and town hall meetings. These LHDs serve as role models for their innovative approaches to reduce the burden of infectious disease in their communities. For more information on characteristics of NACCHO's IPC Champions, or to nominate yourself or a colleague for consideration, visit https://www.naccho.org/programs/community-health/infectious-disease/infectious-disease-prevention-and-control/infection-prevention-and-control-champions.

The role of the chief scientist (CS), a key administrative position in various Israeli ministries, is to fund policy‐oriented research and support evidence‐based decision‐making. Has the CS's role promoted or constrained incorporation of scientific advice regarding climate change adaptation into governmental policy? Have administrative traditions affected the adaptation planning process in Israel? Analysis of documents and 26 in‐depth interviews with key stakeholders sheds light on the ongoing climate change adaptation policy formulation process. Our study reveals that the CS of the Ministry of Environmental Protection functions as a bridge at different interfaces and can be characterized as a boundary worker between institutions. The inherent independence of this position facilitates the CS's ability to initiate, foster, and prioritize complex issues such as adaptation. Our findings further suggest that the perception that Israel has already adapted, or will easily adapt, has negatively affected the adaptation process. 科学建议和行政传统：首席科学家在气候变化适应工作中的作用 首席科学家是以色列各部门的一个关键行政职务, 其具体作用是为政策性研究提供资金, 并支持循证决策。对于有关气候变化适应的科学建议, 首席科学家的作用是促进还是限制了其被纳入到政府政策中？行政传统是否影响了以色列的气候适应规划进程？通过文件分析及与关键利益相关者的26次深入访谈, 笔者揭示了正在进行的适应气候变化政策的制定过程。研究表明, 环保部门的首席科学家在不同的层面上起着桥梁作用, 在不同机构的分界线上工作以彼此连接。该职位的内在独立性能促进首席科学家在发起问题、培养和优先考虑包括适应气候等复杂问题的能力。研究进一步表明, 以色列已经适应了或即将轻易适应某些观点, 而这已经对气候适应过程产生了负面影响。 Asesoria cientifica y tradiciones administrativas: el papel que juegan los cientificos principales en la adaptacion al cambio climatico El papel que juegan los cientificos principales, un puesto administrativo clave en varios ministerios israelies, esta especificamente designado para el financiamiento de investigacion orientada hacia la politica y el apoyo a decisiones basadas en evidencia. ?El papel que juegan los cientificos principales ha promovido o limitado la incorporacion de asesoria cientifica en lo que concierne a la adaptacion al cambio climatico dentro de las politicas del gobierno? ?Las tradiciones administrativas han afectado el proceso de planeacion para la adaptacion en Israel? El analisis de los documentos en 26 entrevistas exhaustivas con partes afectadas clave ilustra el proceso de formulacion de las politicas de adaptacion al cambio climatico actual. Nuestro estudio revela que el Cientifico Principal del Ministerio de Proteccion Ambiental funciona como un puente para diferentes interfaces y puede ser caracterizado como un trabajador limitrofe entre las instituciones. La independencia inherente de esta posicion facilita la habilidad del cientifico principal para iniciar, fomentar y darle prioridad a complejos problemas como la adaptacion. Nuestros hallazgos sugieren que la percepcion de Israel ya se ha adaptado, o se adaptara facilmente, y ha afectado negativamente el proceso de adaptacion.

Introduction to <i>Climate Change Adaptation in New York City: Building a Risk Management Response</i>

Although group-delivered HIV/sexually transmitted disease (STD) risk-reduction interventions for African American adolescent females have proven efficacious, they require significant financial and staffing resources to implement and may not be feasible in personnel- and resource-constrained public health clinics. We conducted a study assessing adoption and implementation of an evidence-based HIV/STD risk-reduction intervention that was translated from a group-delivered modality to a computer-delivered modality to facilitate use in county public health departments. Usage of the computer-delivered intervention was low across 8 participating public health clinics. Further investigation is needed to optimize implementation by identifying, understanding, and surmounting barriers that hamper timely and efficient implementation of technology-delivered HIV/STD risk-reduction interventions in county public health clinics.

Diabetic MedicineVolume 25, Issue 9 p. 1127-1129 No support for association of protein kinase C, beta 1 (PRKCB1) gene promoter polymorphisms c.–1504C>T and c.–546C>G with diabetic nephropathy in Type 1 diabetes K. A. Pettigrew, K. A. Pettigrew Nephrology Research Group and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, UK andSearch for more papers by this authorA. J. McKnight, A. J. McKnight Nephrology Research Group and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, UK andSearch for more papers by this authorR. J. Martin, R. J. Martin Nephrology Research Group and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, UK andSearch for more papers by this authorC. C. Patterson, C. C. Patterson Nephrology Research Group and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, UK andSearch for more papers by this authorJ. Kilner, J. Kilner Nephrology Research Group and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, UK andSearch for more papers by this authorD. Sadlier, D. Sadlier Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research, University College Dublin, IrelandSearch for more papers by this authorA. P. Maxwell, A. P. Maxwell Nephrology Research Group and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, UK andSearch for more papers by this authorD. A. Savage, D. A. Savage Nephrology Research Group and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, UK andSearch for more papers by this authorThe Warren 3/UK GoKinD Study Group, The Warren 3/UK GoKinD Study Group Nephrology Research Group and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, UK andSearch for more papers by this author K. A. Pettigrew, K. A. Pettigrew Nephrology Research Group and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, UK andSearch for more papers by this authorA. J. McKnight, A. J. McKnight Nephrology Research Group and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, UK andSearch for more papers by this authorR. J. Martin, R. J. Martin Nephrology Research Group and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, UK andSearch for more papers by this authorC. C. Patterson, C. C. Patterson Nephrology Research Group and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, UK andSearch for more papers by this authorJ. Kilner, J. Kilner Nephrology Research Group and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, UK andSearch for more papers by this authorD. Sadlier, D. Sadlier Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research, University College Dublin, IrelandSearch for more papers by this authorA. P. Maxwell, A. P. Maxwell Nephrology Research Group and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, UK andSearch for more papers by this authorD. A. Savage, D. A. Savage Nephrology Research Group and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, UK andSearch for more papers by this authorThe Warren 3/UK GoKinD Study Group, The Warren 3/UK GoKinD Study Group Nephrology Research Group and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Queen's University of Belfast, UK andSearch for more papers by this author First published: 29 August 2008 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-5491.2008.02540.xCitations: 2 DOI: 10.1111/j.1464-5491.2008.02540.x Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume25, Issue9September 2008Pages 1127-1129 RelatedInformation

Fostering Agency Through Local Public Health.

Promotion of Research on the HIV Continuum of Care in the United States: The CFAR HIV Continuum of Care/ECHPP Working Group.

Chapter 6: Insurance industry