May 2023 Newsletter

Clinic Director, Bryan Belcher

We are excited to share that we concluded our inaugural 9 week Mind Body Connection class with 6 community members participating. The committed participants interacted with multiple presentations and engaged with ASU faculty, staff and student interns and volunteers on topics ranging from practicing the relaxation response, nutrition, engaging in a mindfulness Labrynth, and Q&A’s with two different App Regional Physicians wrapping up their residency training.  Special thanks to Sydeena Isaacs, Heather Thorpe, Amber Chapman and to our social work interns Emma Mishler and Carmen Gonzalez.  Great job! 

Success Story: Glenda Taylor, Mitchell County

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Glenda attended a Matter of Balance class at Mitchell County Senior Center. Glenda had made great progress with her independence and mobility. However, during the pandemic, Glenda did not have an outlet to exercise and her senior center was closed. Glenda began to decline, she became depressed and isolated. 

Once the senior center returned to in person activities, Glenda registered for the upcoming Matter of Balance Class. She shared with the two leaders that she felt like she had disappointed them and herself since she had fallen during Covid. 

At the beginning of the class this time around, Glenda was unable to do one chair sit/stand on the last day of class, she was able to do 15 of them. She is continuing to lead these exercises at the senior center one day a week and had this to say about the program and her experience:

"All I could do was sit in my chair and watch tv. Now I hardly sit. It made me better and that was my goal."

- Glenda Taylor, Matter of Balance Participant

CarFit Checks Offered by IHHS Clinic

The IHHS clinic is working with the newly developing occupational therapy program at App State to begin offering CarFit checks at no cost to drivers ages 60+. CarFit is a nationwide program designed through a collaboration between the AAA Traffic Safety Foundation, AARP and the American Occupational Therapy Association. 

During a CarFit check, a driver stays in their vehicle while trained technicians conduct a 12-point safety assessment to ensure that mirrors, seat, seatbelts and headrests are properly set to fit the driver, and that vehicle lights and turn signals are in good operating condition. The results of the checklist are provided to the driver for their information, and regional resources are offered for follow-ups relative to any safety or functional concerns that are discovered. A licensed occupational therapist is also on call through the IHHS for followup as needed. 

CarFit checks require between 30-45 minutes and can be scheduled through the IHHS clinic by calling (828) 262-2185. This is not an assessment of driving performance, but rather an assessment of how your vehicle best fits you!

Interested in Mind or Body Fitness?

Research & Grants

Bryan Belcher, Director of the IHHS Interprofessional Clinic and McKenzie Hellman, IHHS Health & Wellness Coordinator received $481,378 in funding for one year from the National Council on Aging. The purpose of this grant is to provide education about flu and COVID vaccines to older adults and host vaccine clinics across the region. The grant builds on the existing Falls Prevention Grant funded by the Administration for Community Living via the Department of Health and Human Services. Activities will occur throughout the High Country, as well as the Hickory Area, based out of the new App State campus.

This grant will fund two full time positions for the coming year, one of which will be housed in Boone and the other at our new Hickory campus location. This will help facilitate the expansion of all of our Aging Well services. They will be working across ten counties (Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Mitchell, Yancey, Watauga, Wilkes) to increase the number of adults age 60 and older who receive flu and COVID 19 vaccines. 

Dr. Maggie Sugg, Associate Professor of Geography & Planning and Research Associate in the Blue Cross IHHS, and Jennifer Runkle, NC State’s Institute for Climate Studies and Research Associate in the Blue Cross NC IHHS, were just awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH-R03 mechanism).  The grant titled, Climate Impacts on Maternal and Infant Health: A Population-based Retrospective Birth Cohort, was awarded from The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and will examine which maternal outcomes conditions are more sensitive to climate-related changes in ambient temperature to inform the development of population-based indicators to be used in state- and community-based surveillance efforts.

Health Interdisciplinary Research Support Allocations (HIRSA) Funding

For the third year, the IHHS has been able to hold an internal grant competition for projects with an interdisciplinary focus. These HIRSA grants–Health Interdisciplinary Research Support Allocations–provide seed money for developing projects that will bring researchers from different fields of study together to address a salient health problem. This year, we were able to fund two projects. 

Exploring Motor Synchrony and Inhibition in Autistic Adults to Develop Future Intervention Paradigms

George Wolford , Department of Rehabilitation Services

Jared Skinner, Department of Public Health and Exercise Science

Traditionally, autism spectrum disorder has been conceptualized as a social communication disorder with repetitive behaviors. However, recent evidence suggests that autistic individuals: (a) communicate efficiently with other autistic individuals but (b) have deficits in executive function and gross motor abilities. Motor and executive function abilities are foundational for social communication but remain understudied in part because the professionals who study social communication (e.g., speech language pathologists) and the professionals who study gross motor movement (e.g., exercise scientists) rarely develop intervention or assessment protocols together.

This protocol seeks to combine methodologies from exercise science and speech-language pathology to measure: social communication, execution function abilities (e.g., inhibition), gross motor movement, and synchrony between autistic and neurotypical (non-autistic) adults. Drs. Wolford and Skinner plan to measure these constructs by using traditional video and behavioral measures within the speech-language pathology literature paired with precise kinematic measurements from equipment housed at the Locomotion Motor Lab (run by Dr. Skinner). The long term aims of the project are to construct a performance profile of adults, ascertain if the pediatric profile is similar, and then modify an existing intervention to target synchrony and executive function abilities in pediatric clients based on these findings.

Exploring personal growth as an opportunity for self-care and health promotion: A qualitative study with clergy

Brook Harmon, Department of Nutrition and Health Care Management

Adam Hege, Department of Public Health and Exercise Science

Residents of Western North Carolina have strong ties to religion. Clergy play an important role in the health of this region through support of health promotion programs and provision of health messages from the pulpit. Unfortunately, high rates of obesity, chronic disease, and burnout exist among clergy, and health promotion programs aimed at clergy have been limited in their ability to create behavior change. The Caring Factor Survey-Caring for Self has been used to understand self-care among nurses and may aid our understanding of clergy self-care. In our initial psychometric testing of the survey with clergy, one item, “I value opportunities that allow me to increase my knowledge and understanding about myself,” did not perform well. Clergy not responding to this item in the same way as the other self-care statements may signal clergy do not perceive learning ways to improve their health as self-care, which may contribute to a lack of participation in health promotion programs. This study aims to explore with clergy: 1) The meaning of “I value opportunities that allow me to increase my knowledge and understanding about myself” and its connection (or lack of connection) to self-care and health, 2) Pathways and barriers they have experienced with engagement in self-reflection, self-care, and health promotion to determine what intersections may exist. Thirty clergy will be recruited to participate in in-depth interviews. Data will be analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings will be used to design and pilot clergy health promotion strategies and marketing messages.

Director, Mary Sheryl Horine

Program Coordinator, Heidi Tait

The Division of Outreach and Education is wrapping up a very busy spring semester which saw the participation of hundreds of community, student and faculty/staff participants.

Camp Crinkleroot

Fifteen campers ages 8-14 on the autism spectrum, along with 25 ASU student volunteers, spent a weekend together learning about friendship building and having fun in a typical camp environment. Campers laughed their way through silly camp songs, arts and crafts activities and camaraderie with 30+ App State athletic teams including volleyball, soccer and cheer. 

Aging Academy

Continuing the theme of “Preparing” and the February presentation about Documentation for Advanced Care Planning, participants engaged in a discussion about Residential Planning in March. In April, program participants took the hands-on approach to learning about Emergency Rooms and Hospitals as they got to experience the BCHS Nursing Department’s state of the art simulation lab. In the simulated apartment, participants recognized hazards and various situations that could be detrimental to health. In the simulated intensive care lab, participants learned about the sounds, sites and even smells of a chaotic hospital emergency department setting. Lee Wittman, director of the simulation lab, did a fantastic job of describing the importance of advanced care directives for both pre-hospital and in-hospital situations.

When I Grow Up...

In April, IHHS Outreach and Education welcomed 5th Graders from the Middlefork Academy to the Beaver College of Health Sciences.

Approximately 50 students and teachers learned about different majors and related career options, got to practice hands only CPR compressions, learned about swallowing disorders and participated in the nursing simulation lab.

Spring Outreach & Education Events

Coming this Summer...

Three weeks of Camp Girls on the Run for rising 3rd through 5th graders!

Learn more about Girls on the Run of the High Country!

Director, Steff McDaniel

HPFS Continues to Grow and Expand

Services in 2023

Pre- Covid, HPFS offered on-campus mammograms twice a year with the capacity to serve approx 120 people per year.  After the COVID shut down, many people were behind on their preventative screenings.

We noticed a sharp increase in need and interest of on-campus mammograms in March of 2022.  Instead of turning people away, we reached out to our partner Novant Health Breast Center of Winston Salem. Once they learned of the mass need in their services, they offered monthly screenings to help fill the gaps. 

Since April 2022 we have scheduled 224 App State Faculty, Staff, Retirees and or spouses to have their annual mammogram. With consistent branded promotion,our team has worked hard to facilitate the 50 % increase in the number of participants gaining access to this life saving preventative screening.

Summer Group Exercise Schedule

HPFS is pleased to share our Summer Group Exercise Schedule below.  Follow this link to learn more about each class's description, class capacity and how to sign-up!