Save the Date: Adult Mental Health First Aid Workshop |
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Please join the HCC Network, Santa Fe Agri-Leaders, and First Call KC for this free workshop. A light dinner will be served. This workshop is open to anyone in the community that would like to learn the risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems. This workshop will teach all participants how to interact with a person in crisis, how to protect themselves, and how to connect the person with professional help. We encourage anyone in the community that is interested in helping their neighbor to attend!
Cost: Free
Dates: Feb 22 & Feb 23 (must attend both evenings)
Times: 4:30-8:30pm
Location: Santa Fe High School Ag Room, 108 Chiefs Ave, Alma, MO 64001 (please park in front of school and enter through the commons door)
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February is National Children's
Dental Health Month
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This year's theme is "Sealants Make Sense." Brushing and flossing are the best ways to help prevent cavities, but it’s not always easy to clean every nook and cranny of your teeth – especially those back teeth you use to chew (called molars). Molars are rough, uneven and a favorite place for leftover food and cavity-causing bacteria to hide.
Still, there’s another safety net to help keep those teeth clean. It’s called a sealant, and it is a thin, protective coating (made from plastic or other dental materials) that adheres to the chewing surface of your back teeth. They’re no substitute for brushing and flossing, but they can keep cavities from forming and may even stop early stages of decay from becoming a full-blown cavity.
In fact, sealants have been shown to reduce the risk of decay by nearly 80% in molars. This is especially important when it comes to your child's dental health. In October 2016, the Centers for Disease Control released a report on the importance of sealants for school-aged children, of which only 43% of children ages 6-11 have. According to the CDC, "school-age children without sealants have almost three times more cavities than children with sealants."
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Managing Stress Can Help Improve Your Heart and Mental Health |
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February is Heart Health Month |
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Stress can have lasting effects on your health and well-being. We all have stress – at work, at home and on the road. Sometimes we can feel especially stressed because of a bad interaction with someone, too much work or everyday hassles like getting stuck in traffic.
Chronic stress can keep you from feeling and performing your best – mentally, physically and emotionally. But no one’s life is completely stress-free. It’s important to know how to manage the stress in your life. These three simple techniques from the American Heart Association will help you deal with stress.
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Positive Self Talk: Positive self-talk can help you calm down and manage stress. With practice, you can learn to shift negative thoughts to positive ones.
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Learn Emergency Stress Stoppers: Emergency stress-stoppers are actions to help you defuse stress in the moment. You may need different stress-stoppers for different situations, and sometimes it helps to combine them.
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Stress-Busting Activities: Doing things you enjoy is a natural way to relieve stress and find your happy place. Even when you’re down, you may find pleasure in simple things like going for a walk, catching up with a friend or reading a good book.
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Rural residents work hard to provide for their households. Adults who may not have been previously eligible for health insurance may now receive low-cost or free coverage.
Missouri Medicaid expansion is here thanks to the dedication of rural voters. Insurance provided through MO HealthNet covers annual checkups, prescription medicines, telehealth visits, mental health services, dental care, and more.
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Los residentes rurales trabajan arduamente para mantener sus hogares. Los adultos que antes no eran elegibles para el seguro médico ahora pueden recibir cobertura gratuita o de bajo costo.
La expansión de Missouri Medicaid está aquí gracias a la dedicación de los votantes rurales. El seguro proporcionado a través de MO HealthNet cubre chequeos anuales, medicamentos recetados, consultas de telesalud, servicios de salud mental, atención dental y más.
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Get Free At-Home COVID-19 Tests |
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Every home in the U.S. is eligible to order 4 free at-home COVID-19 tests. The tests are completely free. Orders will usually ship in 7-12 days.
Order your tests now so you have them when you need them.
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A “booster shot” is not unique to COVID-19. In fact, booster shots are common for many of the vaccines that doctors and health officials recommend for everyone. The most common booster shots people get are annual flu vaccines and boosters for Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis) recommended every 10 years.
COVID-19 booster shots help your body maintain a higher level of immunity and protection against breakthrough COVID-19 infections. A breakthrough infection occurs when someone who is fully vaccinated gets COVID-19. That person can still get sick and spread the virus to others—although most vaccinated people will have milder symptoms.
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Una “inyección de refuerzo” no es exclusiva de COVID-19. De hecho, las vacunas de refuerzo son comunes para muchas de las vacunas que los médicos y los funcionarios de salud recomiendan para todos. Las vacunas de refuerzo más comunes que las personas reciben son las vacunas anuales contra la influenza y las de refuerzo para la Tdap (tétanos, difteria y tos ferina) recomendadas cada 10 años.
Las inyecciones de refuerzo de COVID-19 ayudan a su cuerpo a mantener un mayor nivel de inmunidad y protección contra las infecciones de COVID-19. Una infección progresiva ocurre cuando alguien que está completamente vacunado contrae COVID-19. Esa persona aún puede enfermarse y transmitir el virus a otras personas, aunque la mayoría de las personas vacunadas presentarán síntomas más leves.
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The pediatric Pfizer vaccine for ages 5 to 11 is also available every Monday and Wednesday by appointment only.
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ICYMI: HCC Rides Bridges the Access Gap in Health Care |
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One obstacle of existing public transportation services, including the services for Medicaid enrollees, is the lack of flexibility. While these programs are helpful for appointments scheduled in advance, they offer little wiggle room for changes or emergencies. The same is true for public buses; even if there is no cost, hours of operation and routes are limited.
Because of these challenges, HCC Rides focuses on flexibility. The program aims to promote independence, especially for those who feel like a burden relying on others or miss appointments due to inconvenience. “We’ve had people say, I would not have been able to get to and from my dialysis because my kids would have had to take off work,” said Smith. “We’re able to alleviate the burden some older patients may feel when relying on others.”
While the program primarily provides rides to and from health and wellness appointments, flexible access to care-adjacent errands prevent patients from missing or delaying necessary medication or tests. Riders can request stops to the pharmacy to drop off prescriptions or pick up medication. Patients undergoing dialysis, chemotherapy, and other treatments, or patients who feel too sick to drive, are also able to utilize HCC Rides. If a patient needs a test from an outside facility, drivers capable of and comfortable driving that distance will be available.
According to Smith, many HCC patients don’t have insurance, access to transportation, or both, and will utilize the emergency room (ER) for care. “A lot of the clients we see don’t have transportation or Medicaid and use the ER as primary care," she said. "We want to try and get as many people away from that as we can so that the ambulances and emergency rooms can be used for true emergencies.”
Establishing a reliable service for uninsured residents helps bridge the access barrier gap both financially and geographically. This also allows emergency resources and services to be retained, a critical need as rural facilities often face resource shortages, especially in emergency departments.
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Save the Date: Missouri Rural Behavioral Health Summit |
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The Missouri Rural Behavioral Summit will take place June 15, 2022, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the Holiday Inn and Expo Center in Columbia, MO. This is a summit in partnership with the Missouri Rural Health Association and the Missouri Behavioral Health Council. This summit is designed to bring the rural communities together to discuss behavioral health topics to provide training, tools, and engagement in different areas. This includes, but is not limited to suicide prevention, trauma-informed practices, substance use prevention and addressing the issues with access and workforce in the rural communities.
More details to come.
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Providing Culturally Responsive Care to the LGBTQ+ Population
Feb. 15, 2022
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Reimaging a Public Health System to Build an Equitable Tomorrow
Feb. 15, 2022
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Creating a Sense of Community and Finding Resources in Your Area
Feb. 25, 2022
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Hard Skills and Human Skills – Pulling Them Together for More Community and Patient
March 15, 2022
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Advancing Health Equity Among the Hispanic/Latino Populations
March 16, 2022
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Telehealth for Treatment and Recovery Services
March 18, 2022
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