The Minnesota Department
of Health has named seven employers, two county health departments and
one maternity center breastfeeding friendly for their contributions to the
health and well-being of mothers and their babies.
The county health
departments recognized were Dakota County and Freeborn County. This is
the first year of the awards program, which was created and is supported by the
state Women, Infants and Children program (WIC) and the Statewide Health
Improvement Program (SHIP). For the full article, click here.
Do you have a resource or success story (“gem”) to share for a future issue? Submissions for each week’s Thursday publication are due by noon every Tuesday to Health.MakingitBetter@state.mn.us or community specialists for:
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Localized health news releases and community newspapers: A method
for rural health promotion. Health Promotion
Practice, 16(4), 492-500. Our findings indicate that tailoring health news
releases with local information and targeting releases to align with newspaper
audience demographics could increase the quantity and quality of
health-promoting information available to rural residents, who experience
disparities in health care access and health outcomes.
The U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services has released a proposed rule that extends
nondiscrimination provisions to include
discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity. "The
proposed rule applies to health insurance marketplaces and all health
programs and activities that are administered by or receive funding from
HHS." (deadline for comments, Nov 6)
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The Active Schools Minnesota initiative, in
partnership with the Let’s Move! Active Schools (LMAS), has
released a new progress incentive for schools already enrolled in LMAS to help
school leaders, physical education teachers and staff create Active School
environments. If your school has already registered for Let’s Move!
Active Schools, they have built in quarterly progress incentives to
encourage forward movement in your active schools plan. Generously
provided by Adventure to Fitness, Focused Fitness, GenMove USA, Gopher Sport,
SHAPE America, and S&S Worldwide, LMAS incentives will be awarded on
a quarterly basis to those schools that move the needle on their Action Plan
and fully implement a standard area. Want to be rewarded for your progress this
fall?
1. Update your Action Plan by November 30!
2.
When a Team Member marks an Action Plan item complete for fully implementing a
standard, your school will be entered to win physical education/physical
activity equipment, program materials, training and registration for
professional development events.
3. Recipients will be randomly selected and notified
in the month following the end of each quarter.
Progress
incentive periods are: September 1-November 30, 2015, December 1, 2015 –
February 29, 2016, March 1-May 31, 2016, June 1-August 31, 2016. If you have
any questions or need assistance, please contact the Let’s Move! Active
Schools Customer Support Center at 1-855-972-0876 or help@letsmoveschools.org
or the MN Active Schools Coordinator mary.thissen-milder@state.mn.us.
Preliminary
results from the 2015 USDA Farm to School Census are now online at farmtoschoolcensus.fns.usda.gov.
Thank you for those of you who have already submitted responses!
You can help:
- Spread the word that preliminary 2015 Census
results are now live; and,
- Encourage school districts to visit the website
so that they can review their record or complete the 2015 Census.
In Minnesota
our response rate was 71%. This means not every school’s data was collected and
for some school districts, the information USDA has is incomplete. Please check
your school district’s record at farmtoschoolcensus.fns.usda.gov
and submit any changes using the corrections form at the bottom of your school
districts webpage or email Matt Benson at matthew.benson@fns.usda.gov.
To find your
school, start at farmtoschoolcensus.fns.usda.gov
and then use the search boxes in middle of the webpage to find your
district.
If you do NOT
see a local school district, USDA is accepting additional submissions until November
20, 2015. Simply email Matt Benson at matthew.benson@fns.usda.gov and
let him that you would like to complete the 2015 Farm to School Census.
Minnesota schools and their partners are invited to apply for Safe Routes to School grant funds for planning and infrastructure projects to encourage more students to walk and bicycle to school. Applications are due on January 8, 2016. Visit the SRTS grant page for applications and solicitation details.
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On May 21, 2014, Governor Dayton signed into law new
legislation to protect children living in foster care from secondhand smoke
exposure. The new child foster care home requirements took effect on July 1,
2014. New implementation resources are available to help county and tribal
agencies ensure children in foster care are protected and that foster parents
maintain a smoke-free environment.
The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) has issued
a Bulletin #15-68-18 on Smoke-Free Child Foster Homes
which focuses on defining the policy and child welfare practice requirement to
protect foster children from the effects of secondhand smoke.
The Bulletin highlights a training video developed in
collaboration between DHS, ClearWay Minnesota, Minnesota Department of Health
(MDH) and the Public Health Law Center. DHS is planning to mail a DVD of the
training video to county agencies. Tribal social service and child-placing
agencies may request a DVD of the video or view it on YouTube at: Smoke-Free Foster Care Laws.
MDH has home and vehicle decals available for local license
child-placing agencies to provide to child foster care home providers. To order
decals, submit an order form here.
In addition, the Public Health Law Center developed a 2014 Legislative Spotlight: Smoke-Free Child Foster
Care which summarizes the regulations.
On 10/26/2015 the American
Academy of Pediatrics Released new policy statements around tobacco, nicotine,
and tobacco smoke. These statements included recommendations falling within the
following three areas:
- Public policy to
protect children from tobacco, nicotine, and tobacco smoke
- Clinical practice
policy to protect children from tobacco, nicotine, and tobacco smoke
- Electronic nicotine
delivery systems (ENDS)
View the press
release at https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/Tobacco-and-E-Cigarettes.aspx.
On November 19, the Tobacco-Free College Campus Initiative is asking colleges and universities across the country to take a 1 Day Stand against tobacco in celebration of the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout. For more information, visit the website to find activity ideas, promotional materials and a communications toolkit. 1Day Stand
Data
from the 2009-2010 National Adult Tobacco Survey were analyzed to compare
menthol smoking between LGBT and heterosexual adults. Researchers found that
after adjusting for demographic confounders, LGBT smokers were significantly
more likely than straight smokers to report smoking menthol cigarettes in the
previous 30 days. These results suggest that efforts to reduce smoking of menthol
cigarettes could help reduce smoking disparities in the LGBT sub-population. Click here for details.
Researchers
analyzed a nationally representative sample of 17,522 adults in an online
survey to assess their understanding of dissolvable tobacco products (DTPs) in
the United States. Approximately 16 percent of respondents indicated that they
were aware of DTPs, but only 1.6 percent reported ever using them. DTP use was
greater among males, younger adults, LGBT adults, former smokers, and other
demographic groups. Researchers suggest that because DTPs are sometimes used
for smoking cessation, health professionals can help lower DTP use by
encouraging the use of evidence-based cessation aids. Click here for more.
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 No events this week.
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SHIP evaluation staff and
Jeannette Raymond (SHIP community engagement TA coordinator) hosted a webinar
for SHIP coordinators and evaluation contacts, CHS administrators, and public
health nurse directors and consultants on 9/24 and 9/29/2015 to discuss planning
for CLT evaluation and TA. In the conversation, Julie Myhre shared that MDH is
committed to enhancing the role of CLTs in SHIP. In SHIP 4, grantees will be
supported and encouraged to build capacity to strengthen the roles of their CLT
members. Assistance will include:
- Supporting
efforts to engage various stakeholders from your communities
- Working
with you to help identify opportunities to build and engage CLTs in
decision making opportunities
- Monitoring
and evaluating CLTs to inform stronger support through technical
assistance
Webinar participants
responded to a survey, providing feedback on the webinar and suggestions for
future communications and technical assistance planning. Staff have reviewed
the feedback and will incorporate it as planning moves forward.
Feedback from webinar attendees
- Have grantees
share success stories or experiences regarding CLTs
- Share more
details about what CLT work looks like at the county/CHB level
- Share practical
tips and examples
- Provide TA on how
to move CLT work to the next level
- Facilitate
discussion in smaller groups rather than large group webinar
- Provide more
one-on-one TA on monthly contact calls
- Share information
at regional meetings, Making it Better announcements, Basecamp, webinars and
via email
Next steps
- The SHIP
evaluation team is reviewing and summarizing information collected in SHIP 3
regarding SHIP grantee work with CLTs (August 2015 quarterly reports and SHIP 4
applications). This, along with feedback that will be sought from the
Evaluation Consultation Group, will inform the CLT evaluation for SHIP 4. (The
Evaluation Consultation Group is made up of SHIP LPH staff that volunteer to
meet regularly and provide feedback and insight to the OSHII Evaluation and
Surveillance Team on evaluation topics.)
- Technical
Assistance for community engagement work with CLTs is being planned for SHIP 4.
Training will be provided by MDH or a TA contractor and will not be an extra
cost for grantees. If you have questions or suggestions, please contact
Jeannette Raymond.
Questions?
CLT evaluation planning: Health.SHIP.eval@state.mn.us
Technical Assistance: Jeannette.Raymond@state.mn.us
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