National Association for Behavioral Healthcare’s Post

On April 23rd, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the "2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention" and first-ever "Federal Action Plan" to accompany it. The focuses of the national strategy and federal action plan are (1) community-based suicide prevention, (2) treatment and crisis services, (3) surveillance, quality improvement, and research, and (4) health equity in suicide prevention. To learn more, view their page here: https://lnkd.in/edr7CfcU

Did you know that there are currently 7 CEAL programs with initiatives and teams located across the country? CEAL programs conduct community-engaged research on various public health topics, where communities and groups are disproportionately affected by specific diseases, disorders, or conditions. Learn more about how these programs are making a positive impact through community-engaged approaches: https://bit.ly/3RnN6eR

March 15 is International Long COVID Awareness Day. Long Covid is a multi-systemic disease, damaging organs, neurological, GI, and vascular systems alongside AIDS-like immune dysregulation with research pointing to SARS-CoV-2 viral persistence as the leading cause. In 2023 it was estimated that at least 65 million people worldwide continue to suffer from Long Covid. Despite these horrific reports, there are no approved effective antiviral treatments for Long Covid to stop SARS-CoV-2 viral persistence. https://lnkd.in/dNUvmJi9

Reporters covering lead pipes and public health: Book a 15-minute Zoom interview with Dr. Mary Jean Brown (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) on April 10 (1-3 p.m. ET). She can discuss: lead exposure and children's health, what families can do to mitigate exposure, and more. https://bit.ly/48pwgmf

This month's issue of our newsletter, Public Health Matters, is ready! The topics include a calendar of public health occasions related to communicable diseases, recent news stories, learning opportunities, and our recent blog posts. Take a look, and let us know what you think. We're very interested in your feedback, including ideas for future content. We want the newsletter to be useful to YOU. For the April issue of Public Health Matters, see https://zc.vg/MiltD?m=0. To get future issues delivered straight to your email inbox, you can subscribe at https://zc.vg/Ftqer. #publichealth #publichealthmatters #newsletter

The intricate web of the impact of human trafficking on mental and physical health, healthcare systems, infectious disease risks, social determinants, community support, data collection, and the need for policy changes, equity, and legacy considerations highlights the complexity of this pervasive issue. Learn more about the intersection of public health and human trafficking in our newest Community Commons Original: https://lnkd.in/eSG-DYU9 #HumanTrafficking #PublicHealth #TraffickingPrevention [Image description: Black text reads "The intricate web of the impact of human trafficking on mental and physical health, healthcare systems, infectious disease risks, and the need for policy changes, equity, and legacy considerations highlights the complexity of this pervasive issue. - The Intersection of Human Trafficking and Public Health" inside of a white circle. Background image is a collage of four photos of people of various ages, genders, and races, each with a different color overlay. communitycommons.org is listed at the bottom.]

Connecting medicine and public health! Read about ACPs work to improve the social and structural determinants of health.

Art is a great medium for public health communication. In rural communities, I suspect there is a lot of untapped potential in this space, not only to communicate and elicit behaviour change, but linking back to this paper (https://lnkd.in/gcfqnreW) on rural arts investment, to engage with people in the communities where we work.

Very important points to ponder and rethink community health as a prime importance.

Social prescribing in the suicide prevention and AOD space really needs more attention. I’m currently working with a former veteran who struggles with being able to access and remain engaged in care mostly due to ‘office hours’ or ‘wait time’ for when they summon the strength to reach out for help. When life becomes overwhelming for them, they disconnect and get labeled as ‘non compliant’ or any other number of labels that pathologise them as a ‘problematic patient’ because current service models are not equipped to meet them in their hour of need. I’ve been able to advocate for them with community psychiatry, veteran services and NDIS to support a peer based approach. If it hadn’t been for this advocacy this person would have been placed under guardianship and removed many of their basic rights to be able to have choice, consent and control over their own care. Social prescribing provides a new opportunity for us to meet health consumers where they are in their health seeking journey. Modern medicine and other health interventions demonstrate great efficacy, but only represent those that can engage and participate in such studies. I hope social prescribing will forge a new path forward built on addressing Marmott’s eloquent discussion on social determinants of health as being just as relevant as other basic vitals monitored by the nursing/medical professionals. As a peer worker, and someone with a lived experience of both AOD and suicidal crisis, I was lucky to have the social capital of being a white male, and having the financial backing of a family that was wealthy in contrast to most of the people I work with daily. I’m all for evidenced based health interventions, but too often I see that they lack empathy, compassion or understanding of what engagement/compliance really means from a consumer’s perspective.