OMHHE Newsletter  
March 3, 2016  

In This Issue
  Current & Upcoming Events
 
ONGOING
March is National Nutrition Month
  
AWARD OPPORTUNITY
Telehealth Innovation Award
MATRC seeks nominations that tell a compelling story about an innovative application of telehealth.
Nominations are due March 15, 2016
  
EVENT
National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit
Atlanta, GA
March 28-31, 2016

 EVENT
Society for Public Health Education's 67th Annual Meeting
Charlotte, NC
March 30-April 1, 2016
  
EVENT
MATRC 2016 Telehealth Summit
Cambridge, MD
April 10-12, 2016
 
EVENT
National Rural EMS Conference
San Antonio, TX
April 21-22, 2016

Funding Opportunities

Increasing Access to Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) in Rural Primary Care Practices
HHS
Deadline is March 4, 2016

Small Health Care Provider Quality Improvement Program
HHS/HRSA
Deadline is March 4, 2016

Distance Learning & Telemedicine Grants
USDA/RD
Deadline is March 14, 2016
 
Virginia Rescue Squad Assistance Fund Grant Program
RHIhub
Deadline is March 15, 2016
 
Telehealth Network Grant Program
HHS/HRSA
Deadline is April 8, 2016

National Health Education Lupus Program
HHS/OMH
Deadline is April 18, 2016
Learn more

Understanding and Promoting Health Literacy (R01).
HHS/NIH
Deadline is May 7, 2016.
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 The Virginia HOI has moved!
Virginia HOI
The Virginia Health Opportunity Index has a new look and a new location.
  
Visit the redesigned
Virginia Health Opportunity Index (HOI)
  

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact:
Justin Crow, Social Epidemiology & Shortage Designations Manager, or Joanne Winburne, Communications Specialist.

Requests for Virginia HOI data must be sent via the Virginia HOI contact form.
  
Health Equity 
American Cancer Society to provide funding to promote health equity in South Dakota
The Daily Republic, March 2, 2016

The American Cancer Society will provide another year of funding in 2016 to support increased access to colorectal cancer education and screening resources in underserved communities nationwide. Thanks to support from Walgreens, Horizon Health Care, Inc. (Horizon) will receive a $50,000 grant award to provide cancer education and access to screening for individuals. A community health center network with clinic sites in 19 communities across South Dakota, Horizon provides primary and preventive health care including cancer screening through over 83,000 patient visits annually.
 
The American Cancer Society's Community Health Advocates implementing Nationwide Grants for Empowerment and Equity (CHANGE) Grant Program builds community and system capacity to promote health equity, access and navigation to screening resources within underserved communities.

Despite Efforts, Black Women Deliver More Preterm Births
Hartford Courant, March 1, 2016

lack women in Connecticut remain more likely than white or Hispanic women to deliver preterm babies, despite efforts to reduce the disparity, newly released data show.
In 2014, 12 percent of all births by black women in the state were preterm, meaning they occurred before 37 weeks gestation, according to data compiled by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. That compares with 9 percent of all births by white women and 10 percent of all births by Hispanic women that were preterm during the same year.

Nationally, the trend was similar with 13 percent of births by black women occurring preterm compared with 9 percent of white women's births and 9 percent of Hispanic women's births. In the vast majority of states, black women experience a higher rate of preterm births than whites or Hispanic women, according to the state-by-state comparison of the Kaiser data.

Cultural Health 

MU medical team addresses refugee health issues
The Maneater, March 1, 2016

The Refugee and Immigration Services is expecting 50 more refugees to come this year, many of them from the East African region.

Understanding the unique health needs of a refugee population is difficult and complicated, said Dr. Kristin Sohl, a medical and advocacy director for the MU Child Health Department, but the medical community needs to start.

Sohl is a faculty leader for a grant project called the Community-Pediatric Partnerships for Child Health and Well-Being in Missouri. She and a team of pediatric staff and medical residents at MU are working toward addressing health disparities in the growing population of East African refugees living in Columbia.

Growing demand for medical interpreters in Texas and across US
My Statesman, February 27, 2016
 
Imagine having to tell your grandmother that she has cancer when you haven't assimilated the news yourself. That's what happened to Mark Villafuerte when he had to interpret between English and Spanish for his ailing grandma, when he was in his twenties.

With the growing number of people who speak Spanish at home - estimated to reach 43.1 million in 2020 in the United States, according to the Census Bureau 2011 projections - there's more need than ever for professionally-trained medical interpreters, who bridge languages and cultures. In the Austin Independent School District alone, three out of five students are Hispanic (60 percent) and at least 24,000 students speak Spanish at home. Interpreters provide an essential service, and there are various training options locally.
Read more!
Rural Health
Opioid Epidemic Taking Center Stage from Rural Communities to the Hill for Showdown
RAC Monitor, March 2, 2016

The U.S. Senate floor is ready for a showdown this week as Democratic demands for $600 million in emergency funding is threatening to take down a bipartisan bill (backed by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio))  to tackle the nation's latest public health epidemic - opioid addiction. 

Democrats indicated they are prepared to fight include the emergency funding, which is backed by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) who urged separately for her colleagues to help her get the funding included as part of the CARA/Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act.  The test vote comes early this week when the Senate votes to end debate on taking up the legislation.

Struggling rural hospitals look for ways to access needed technology
Healthcare IT News, March 1, 2016

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, legislators and others discuss ways to change current regulations to give rural hospitals technology that rivals what the large health systems have, according to Patrick Yount, director of HIT at the Colorado Rural Health Center.
Rural hospitals are closing and more are in danger of shutting their doors as margins shrink and federal regulations hamstring critical access hospitals from changing the way they do business.
"Technology provides us the larger area of margin, the largest area of improvement for providing value to the care provider," Yount said during a business intelligence session at HIMSS16.

Rural Impact County Challenge: A National Effort to Combat Rural Child Poverty
National Association of Counties

Small towns and rural communities are home to millions of Americans, are a vibrant part of our nation's economy, and include some of the most beautiful landmarks in the country. Rural America provides the vast majority of food, energy, and environmental benefits for the rest of the country. Additionally, rural communities are the source of nearly 90 percent of renewable water resources, and home to important service sector and manufacturing hubs.

Despite this critical role in our nation's economy, too many Americans in rural areas are not sharing in our nation's economic growth. A full 85 percent of our country's persistent poverty counties are in rural America.
Tools and Resources
The Health Resources and Services Administration released an online version of the chart book, The Health and Well-Being of Children in Rural Areas: A Portrait of the Nation 2011-2012. The Mid-Atlantic Regional Health Equity Council released a Regional Blueprint for Action illustrating regional trends on health disparities and the social determinants of health. Child Health USA released their findings related to the health status and service needs of America's infants, children, and adolescents. The White House 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 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 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. Migrant Clinicians Network is offering a free Bilingual Picture Dictionary for Health & Safety in Agriculture along with lesson plans and training materials.




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