Georgia PH week [Mar. 26, 2012]

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Henry County Schools Tobacco-Free Work Recognized

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In This Issue
Henry Schools Tobacco-Free District 5-2 WIC Celebrates Mercer Partner Up! winner

Henry County Schools

Board of Education

was formally

recognized by District

4 Public Health

(LaGrange district)

officials during

Monday evening's

board meeting.

Hayla Hall, public information officer for District 4 Public Health, presented a

Hayla Hall (front, center) presents Erik Charles with a plaque, while supported by youth advisory
council members from local communities.

plaque to board Vice Chairman Erik Charles recognizing the

school system's efforts to become tobacco-free.

Dangers of Rural Roads Clinic Getting $3 million
Fight to Control TB
PHEVENTS


Henry County Schools became the 80th system in the state to approve the 100% Tobacco-Free Schools Model Policy during last month's meeting. Hall, as well as youth from advisory councils representing Shiloh McDonough Community Outreach, Inc. and Zion Community Center of Hampton, were in attendance to help make the presentation to the Board of Education.

American Diabetes Association "This is a very positive policy update for our employees, students,

Alert Day

and community," said Rodney Bowler, Assistant Superintendent

Mar. 24

for Administrative Services. "A tobacco-free school system

American Diabetes Association Alert Day is a one-day "wake-up call"

supports a healthy lifestyle that we can all be proud of."

asking the American public to take the

Diabetes Risk Test to find out if they

are at risk for developing type 2

diabetes.

District 5-2 WIC Program Celebrates

2012 Focus Stop Diabetes Expo National Nutrition Month Mar. 31

9 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Cobb Galleria Centre Get the latest information on preventing and managing diabetes and
its deadly complications. Click here for more information

Board of Public Health Meeting

Apr. 10

1 p.m.

5th Floor Board Room

2 Peachtree Street, Atlanta

The WIC program in North Central Health District, District 5-2 in

83rd Annual GPHA Meeting and Conference
Apr.12 - 13

Macon, is celebrating National Nutrition month during March, kicking off their celebration with a show of colors during their February staff meeting.

Crowne Plaza Atlanta Ravinia
To register, click here.
GSU's Partnership for Urban
Health Research Annual Lecture
The Urban Brain: An Urban Health Lecture by Dr. Sandro Galea Apr. 18

Terri Williams, nutritionist and certified lactation consultant at the Family Advocacy WIC clinic, coordinated the colorful attire for each WIC clinic. She assigned groups different colors to wear that matched the colors on the MyPlate icon. MyPlate illustrates the five food groups that are the building blocks for a healthy diet using a familiar image-a place setting for a meal.
"I asked that they wear blue for dairy, red for fruits, green for

11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. Speaker's Auditorium Georgia State University

vegetables, orange for grains and purple for protein," Williams said. "Some of the groups showed up with masks, balloons and food models to further showcase their assigned food group.

What a colorful group they made!" Superpuff Saturday: Asthma

Day Camp

Apr. 21

9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Northside Baptist Church, Valdosta

Mercer University Public Health

For children 6-12 years old and their parents
Sponsored by Children's Medical Services & South Health District

Association selected as Partner Up! Video Contest winner

Camp offers a fun-filled day of games, food and prizes while increasing your

In November of 2011,

knowledge about asthma, its

Partner Up! for Public

treatment, how to cope with the Health invited Georgia

illness and special needs associated students to recreate

with asthma.
For more information contact CMS at 800-848-5728 or 229-245-4310.


the "This is Public Health" national campaign by creating

Submit Calendar Entries to a video emphasizing

askdph@dhr.state.ga.us

the importance of

public health in their

PHRECIPE

community. Students were encouraged to produce creative, original and informative videos

Mercer University Public Health Association team members won the Partner Up! for Public Health video contest with their video about public health
at work in the Macon area.

addressing the question - "What is public health?"

By the March 1 deadline, 12 student teams from across the state had submitted videos that tackled the subject matter from a wide range of approaches.

Couscous and Fruit Salad
Servings: 4 (about 3/4 cups each)
Click Here for Full Recipe
PHTRAINING
Program Evaluation: Using Logic Models to Create an
Evaluation Framework
Mar. 28 1 p.m. -3 p.m. 2 Peachtree St., Atlanta, Room 16-
105 or VICS This 2-hour session will build on the previous logic models training and will focus on using logic models to
create an evaluation framework. To register click here

"It was very gratifying to see the different ways the student teams came at this assignment," said Charles Hayslett, the Partner Up! campaign leader. "They brought a lot of creativity and passion to these videos, and all, in their own way, were very impressive."
The Mercer University Public Health Association video submission was selected as the contest winner by a panel of judges comprised of Partner Up! for Public Health campaign staff and advisory board members. The video, "This is Public Health: Addressing Issues and Creating Solutions", running just over 5 minutes, focuses on public health at work in the Macon area. The Mercer University Public Health Association video contest team members are Shekita Maxwell, Brittany Taylor, Else Seifu, Patience Sellers, Melanie Williams, Phylicia Hammonds, Jennifer Jones, Chanda Redd, Meghan Gondron and Karishma Saini. Mercer University Public Health Association president Crystal Davis also played a supporting role.
Initiative Addresses Dangers of Rural

Introduction to HR Hiring Process
Mar. 29 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. 2 Peachtree Street, Atlanta An introduction to the new hiring processes for DPH targeted to staff that have or will have hiring responsibilities. Learn about the process from beginning to end. To register for the course click here
For info contact: dgdunn@dhr.state.ga.us
Health Communications Skills for the Public Health Practitioner
Mar. 29-30 Dolce Atlanta-Peachtree
Peachtree City, GA This hands-on two-day training course will provide practical tools and
strategies on how health communication can be used in public
health practice. RSVP: Mar. 23 For complete training details and to register click here. Click on Upcoming Events. Email Tara Redd with questions
Larval Mosquito ID class
Apr. 16-17 Chatham County Mosquito Control
facility, Savannah Free mosquito ID classes open to environmental health specialists, mosquito control techs, PCOs, and anyone else with an interest in
learning to ID mosquitoes To sign up, email Rosmarie Kelly
Grant Writing and Development
Apr. 19-20 Lake Lanier Legacy Ledge Conference
Center Buford, Ga. This training is designed to help public health professionals locate, evaluate and effectively respond to various grant opportunities (local, state and national). For complete training details and to register click here. Click on Upcoming Events. Email Tara Redd with questions
Adult Mosquito ID class
May 21-22 Hinesville Free mosquito ID classes open to environmental health specialists, mosquito control techs, PCOs, and anyone else with an interest in learning to ID mosquitoes To sign up, email Rosmarie Kelly
Submit Calendar Entries to askdph@dhr.state.ga.us
PHBRIEFS
DHS Sponsors Charity Golf
Tournament
The Department of Human Services' (DHS) Annual Charity Golf
Tournament will be held Monday, April 23, at Newnan Country Club.
Last year, proceeds from the tournament afforded DHS the ability to contribute $4,100 for Christmas gifts to DFCS foster children. DHS's goal is to exceed $4,500 this year.
For more information, contact Lisa Marie Shekell, lmshekell@dhr.state.ga.us
DPH Welcomes Legal Intern
PH welcomes its first legal intern, Gregory Forsheim, a first year law
student at the Georgia State University School of Law. Gregory has
a Masters Degree in public health from Emory University's Rollins School
of Public Health and an undergraduate degree from Luther College in Iowa. He is also a 10 year veteran of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, where he worked as a microbiologist in the Division of
Healthcare Quality Promotion.

Roads

Traffic fatalities on

rural roads made up

57 percent of total

fatalities in 2007 in

Georgia even though

only 23 percent of

Georgia's population

lives in rural areas.

Recognizing the

disparity, the

Department of Public

Health (DPH) along

with the University of Steve Davidson (left) project director for the Rural

Georgia teamed with

Roads Initiativ and David Brake (right), a county environmentalist, distribute information to

the Governor's Office students at a teen traffic safety event in Appling

of Highway Safety

county.

(GOHS) to launch a

Rural Roads Initiative.

Funded to identify risk factors and ultimately decrease injury on these country roads, the initiative addresses environmental risks such as inadequate signage and striping on roads, behavioral factors such as lack of seat belt usage and speeding, and best program practices and evaluation data. The initiative reinforced that Georgians driving or riding on rural roadways face a much greater risk of being killed or injured in traffic crashes (than those in urban or suburban areas) because Georgians in rural areas are more likely not to wear a seat belt.

Consequently, attention is now focused on increasing teen seat belt usage. The model consists of surveys to determine the current and post intervention seat belt usage levels, incentives to encourage teens to use seat belts, and disincentives for nonusage.

HIV/AIDS Clinic Getting $3 million

The HIV/AIDS clinic at Georgia Health Sciences University is getting a $3 million renewal, money that will become even more critical as the waiting list for help with AIDS drugs in Georgia becomes the longest in the country.

David Thompson, a community outreach specialist

with Georgia Health Sciences University,

The university

administers an OraQuick Advance HIV-1/2 received a federal

antibody test at Walgreens on Peach Orchard Road $3.4 million renewal in Augusta.(Photo by EMILY ROSE BENNETT/STAFF) for three years to

serve the 13 counties surrounding Augusta in Georgia, and Aiken

and Edgefield counties in South Carolina.

The clinic has received funding since 1995 through the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act to enable it to treat 1,300 patients and do outreach such as rapid HIV testing.

The funding is even more critical because Georgia and South Carolina limit the number of patients who can receive help through the state AIDS Drug Assistance Program. Of the 4,774 patients nationwide who are on a waiting list to receive financial help from the states, 1,320 of them are in Georgia, the largest waiting list of any state, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Another 224 are on South Carolina's waiting list.

The lack of funding hasn't hurt patient care at a large clinic like the one at GHSU, said Dr. J. Peter Rissing, chief of infectious diseases and professor of medicine at GHSU. "It means that we have more hoops to jump through and the folks that assist us in that are doing more solicitation from pharmaceutical (companies)," he said. The ones likely hurt by it are patients who are being seen at smaller providers that might have only a few HIV patients and lack the staff to do the contacts and paperwork, Rissing said.

Gregory will join the DPH Office of General Counsel during the summer
of 2012 to assist in the review of administrative regulations,
preparations for administrative hearings on license revocations, procurement and contract issues, and related legal and policy research.

PHTECHTIP
Create a List with Clickable Checkboxes in Word 2007
Here is an advanced technique for creating checkbox lists which you can click on to check.
If the Developer tab is not displayed on your Ribbon you will need to add it:
Click the Microsoft Office Button image, and then click Word Options Click Popular Select the Show Developer tab in the Ribbon check box
To add the checkbox, click the Developer tab on the Ribbon Click the checkbox in the Controls group Click the checkbox control to select (or deselect). I recommend using a table for this type of a list, placing the checkbox in a column beside the list items.
-by Lisa Miller, Human Resources Information Systems, Georgia Department of Public Health

Public Health Crucial in Fight to
Control TB
March 24 commemorated World Tuberculosis (TB) Day and marks the day in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the germ that causes TB. The 2012 World TB Day campaign in the U.S. focused on the slogan "Stop TB in My Lifetime". In Georgia, TB cases dropped 62 percent from 909 cases reported in 1992, the peak year of a TB resurgent period in Georgia, to 347 cases in 2011. The Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) TB Program attributes the decline in TB cases to successful public health program interventions.
The majority of TB cases in Georgia are treated in public health clinics. Program interventions include directly observed therapy, effective case management and thorough contact investigations conducted by dedicated public health staff.
Georgia TB program staff, along with state TB laboratory and TB program staff from districts close to Atlanta, participated in the CDC-sponsored annual TB Walk held at Grant Park in Atlanta on World TB Day. The group participates every year and is often joined by other DPH employees.

PHNEWS

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WHO warns
Flu Season Over? Think Again, Health Officials Say

PHWEEK

Editor Kimberly Stringer
Content Coordinator Connie F. Smith
Graphic Designer Jimmy Clanton, Jr.
Digital Properties Manager Bobbi Powell
Editorial & Design Team Charles Gary Ginny Jacobs Sandra Roberts
Suleima Salgado
Director of Communications Ryan Deal
Public Health Observances for March 2012

National Endometriosis Awareness Month Click Here for more information
Forward email

National Colorectal Cancer
Click Here for more information

Trisomy Awareness Month
Click Here for more information

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