Follow Us! Henry County Schools Tobacco-Free Work Recognized Submit your story suggestions, ideas, comments or a story of your own! 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 Can an aspirin a day keep cancer away? Attention, allergies sufferers: Pollen has arrived Where Could The Next Outbreak Of Measles Be? Southern teens have highest rates of pregnancies, STDs, study saysancies-stds-study-says Obesity diagnosed in numerous ways Buy locally grown produce, meat with the click of a mouse Report shows link between imported foods and disease Overuse of antibiotics means that a scraped knee could become deadly, 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 This email was sent to gadocs@uga.edu by askdph@dhr.state.ga.us | Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribeTM | Privacy Policy. Georgia Department of Public Health | 2 Peachtree Street, NW | Atlanta | GA | 30303