Category Archives: community health

January Is Birth Defects Prevention Month: Are Local Health Departments Ready?

Q&A with NACCHO Board Member Sandra Elizabeth Ford, MD, MBA Director of the DeKalb County Board of Health

A baby is born with a birth defect in the United States every 4.5 minutes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Birth defects are defined as any structural changes present at birth that affect how the body looks, works, or both, and they can vary from mild to severe. While not all birth defects can be prevented, there are concrete steps pregnant mothers can take to increase the chances of giving birth to a healthy baby. In honor of National Birth Defects Prevention Month, the CDC released a resource guide providing pregnant moms tips for preventing birth defects. Continue reading →

Preventing HIV Perinatal Transmission and Congenital Syphilis in Broward County Florida

The following Model Practice was submitted by the Florida Department of Health in Broward County. To access this Model Practice and to view the full application, click here. NACCHO is currently accepting applications for the 2018–2019 Model Practices Program until December 12. Learn more and apply today.

Broward County, Florida has a population of approximately 1.9 million people and hosts an estimated 10 million visitors each year. It is a very diverse community with residents from 200 different countries and nearly 130 languages spoken throughout the county. Minorities account for nearly 59.5% of the population, making it a minority/majority county. Continue reading →

Implementing Quality Improvement to Address Low Adolescent Vaccination Rates

By Maria Stock, Fairfax County Health Department, VA

This article originally ran in NACCHO’s Stories from the Field.

When the opportunity to join the third cohort of the NIPA Quality Improvement Learning Collaborative arose, the Fairfax County Health Department (FCHD) joined to help address challenges related to adolescent vaccination rates.

A couple years ago, Fairfax County was struggling with low HPV vaccine initiation and completion rates, and the health department was considering how to initiate a quality improvement (QI) project targeting adolescent vaccination. In 2016, we were given the opportunity to join the third cohort of the National Immunization Partnership with the APA (NIPA), a large-scale, QI Learning Collaborative designed to prioritize HPV vaccination at every adolescent visit. Continue reading →

Community Leaders Connect in ACEs and Resilience Community of Practice

By Marilyn Gisser, Washington State Department of Health

It takes a tireless dedication to help your community thrive and to assist those who struggle with health or social challenges. Often the work occurs in isolation and with limited feedback. Washington State received an overwhelming response when it offered to bring together individuals from across the state to talk, reflect, increase their knowledge, build relationships, and problem-solve about child abuse and neglect prevention strategies. Continue reading →

Honoring Essential Agents of Change: A Partnership Strategy

By Deborah Mutschler, Massachusetts Essentials for Childhood 

Massachusetts Essentials for Childhood (MA EfC) promotes a variety of opportunities communities can employ to promote safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments to prevent child abuse and neglect. To highlight an expansive view of partnership, MA EfC created the Essential Agent of Change Awards, which honors community groups with missions that don’t directly address child abuse and neglect prevention, but still strengthen protective factors in families and communities that support safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments for all children and families. Continue reading →

Colorado’s Family Friendly Workplace Approach

By Tomei Kuehl, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

Colorado is one of five Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Essentials for Childhood recipients and chose to focus on employer engagement as one a strategy to address child abuse and neglect prevention and promote safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments for all children. The Colorado Essentials for Childhood project leveraged partnerships and resources to develop the Family-Friendly Workplace Toolkit, which provides employers with evidence-informed practices and policies that enhance employee health and well-being. Continue reading →

Translating Child Adversity Data into Actionable Information

By Marissa Abbott, MPH and Steve Wirtz, PhD, California Department of Public Health

The California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative launched a new set of child adversity and resilience data indicators on Kidsdata.org. Furthermore, the initiative created state and local dashboards to bring together sources of data that represent a broader set of life experiences than originally reflected in the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study, such as living in poverty or dangerous neighborhoods. The goal was to make these data widely available and provide training on how to talk about adversity to increase local capacity for preventive action. Continue reading →