Public Health in the Rockies 2017: Unlocking The Future: Full Schedule
Check out the schedule for Public Health in the Rockies 2017: Unlocking The Future
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Traditional study designs used for foodborne illness outbreaks are often time and resource heavy. With limited data, the binomial distribution may provide an alternative method to case-control studies for hypothesizing implicated foods. This session will present the findings from a binomial distribution, used during a recent outbreak of Salmonella at a local retail food establishment. We will discuss the methods, interpretations, strengths, and limitations of using this technique in an outbreak investigation setting.

The Attitudes and Behaviors on Health (TABS on Health) Survey, conducted in 2015, included two new modules: built environment and barriers to healthy eating and active living. TABS on Health provides information on individuals living throughout the state of Colorado. Data shared within this session will include regional data and select disparities in built environment access and use and barriers to physical activity and nutrition for individuals and families.

Mental Health First Aid and Youth Mental Health First Aid (MHFA/YMHFA) aim to increase laypersons’ mental health literacy, reduce stigma, and encourage appropriate intervention. There is evidence that MHFA/YMHFA significantly increases participants’ self-efficacy in the short-term, however there is less evidence that trainees actually use their new skills to help people experiencing behavioral health crises. Results of a follow-up evaluation that measured trainee application of the skills taught in Y/MHFA will be shared.

This presentation discusses the development of a Community Advisory group for behavioral healthcare services for Latinos in Colorado. We’ll present information on group development as an academic, community, regulation agency, and stakeholder group partnership. We’ll present recruitment, develop, and start-up methods, and overcoming obstacles to group participation. Initial findings and ongoing development of potential research and clinical methods of improving Latino mental health services, e-health engagement, and other related resources will be discussed.

With the legalization of retail marijuana in Colorado, there is concern that more people are driving while high. Three different sources of survey data were obtained to learn about marijuana use and driving patterns: Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS), Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) survey. Data was also obtained on motor vehicle crashes where drivers tested positive for marijuana. Survey and crash data results will be presented.

At this networking lunch, sponsored by CALPHO and the Colorado Trust, members of the MDPH Health Equity Workgroup will discuss their experiences over the past year as part of this unique cross-jurisdictional team. Learn about how these six metro-area LPHAs are collaborating to address their region’s shared health equity concerns.

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Healthy Child Care Colorado, a statewide resource for child care health consultants (CCHCs), consisting of medical professionals assisting early childhood programs with health and safety standards, and researchers from CU, will share the findings of the recent needs assessment to better understand the clinical practices, education gaps, and desired supports for the nurses and physician who serve as CCHCs. We will share next steps to improve supports and professionalize child care health consultation in Colorado.

The 2013 and 2016 Larimer County Community Health Assessments measured local impacts after a national health policy, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was implemented. We found dramatic changes in health insurance coverage and access to and affordability of medical, dental and mental healthcare. Assessment data was shared with community members and stakeholders during the debate over repeal and/or replace the ACA. Lessons from using local data to inform changes in health policies will be shared.

Academic Health Department is a term use to “describe an affiliation between a health department and an academic health professions institution.” This program showcase will describe how Jefferson County Public health, a local health department, developed a clinical scholar program and created a designated staff position to better coordinate student activities with universities, enhance students learning through comprehensive clinical and creative projects, and bridge the gap between academics and practice.

The Smart Mouths Smart Kids (SMSK) is an initiative of Oral Health Colorado. SMSK focuses on decreasing oral health disparities and supporting school readiness for Colorado’s children by developing tools to initiate and sustain school-linked oral health programs and connect children to a permanent dental home.

Collaborating communities provided the foundation on which SMSK was built, and guided the development of tools to support accurate data collection, longitudinal surveillance, business planning and financial sustainability.

Meaningful community engagement can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be. Community wisdom is necessary for health & we should offer opportunities for communities to exercise power in decision-making. But how do we do this? The Colorado Office of Health Equity has developed relevant tools & techniques to help public health practitioners plan meaningful public participation. Join us to learn about strategies for arriving at effective solutions with community & to workshop real-life scenarios.

This session will cover how to develop an action plan to impact the priority areas your community wants to address. Learn how to start with a measurable outcome or goal and develop a strategy map and action plans with community partners. We'll present different options for tracking, sharing and measuring this information- including the Thriving Colorado Dashboard. You'll walk away with new resources and we'll use your feedback to continue to develop CHAPS guidance.

This session will provide an overview of how the Vida Sana: United for Health Equity coalition in Fort Collins has implemented community health worker/promotora programming at the neighborhood level to increase access to health services while simultaneously working on systems and policy changes to improve infrastructure, transportation, housing, childcare and funding for other social determinants of health. Participants will learn about community engagement strategies and how Vida Sana has moved from program to policy change.

Use of electronic vapor products and electronic smoking devices has increased among youth and adults in recent years. This session will characterize Colorado e-vapor product users, assess disparities in use, and reveal co-use of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana and reasons for use among adults based on data from the 2015 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey and the 2016 Colorado Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Community strategies to address this emerging public health challenge will be described.

When it comes to understanding how to advance equity, one can easily feel confused about where to start. The Colorado Office of Health Equity developed “Sweet Tools to Advance Equity”, to take equity from theory to action. What makes them so sweet? Recognizing you have limited time, the tools are concise and focused on topics related to your everyday work, such as checking assumptions in decision-making, authentic community engagement, framing data and measuring equity efforts.

There is no lack of opportunity for outdoor recreation in Western Colorado yet many families continue to face barriers to engaging in recreational activities. This presentation will review an inclusive and community-based approach to activating existing community resources to foster safe and welcoming spaces for families to engage in outdoor physical activity. Attendees will be able to describe one method of presenting data in a meaningful format to empower the community to make data-driven decisions.

In October 2016, the El Paso County Public Health Tuberculosis Program adopted Video Directly Observed Therapy (VDOT) as an alternative to in-home and/or in-office directly observed therapy (DOT) visits for qualifying active and latent tuberculosis cases. This presentation aims to provide information regarding adherence rates, patient satisfaction with the VDOT system, the financial savings from travel mile, staff hours and the cost savings of VDOT vs. DOT.

As Colorado’s oral health coalition, Oral Health Colorado (OHCO) and its partners are working diligently to re-integrate oral health into overall health services and systems through policy changes to improve overall health statewide. Panelists from Oral Health Colorado, the Colorado Dental Association and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will discuss policy work in other states and at a national level.

Young adults ages 18 to 24 years old who go straight from high school to work smoke at significantly higher rates than their peers. There are few identified programs designed to engage young adults with meaningful prevention and cessation interventions. To engage these young adults, we created several innovative tools which show both monetary and health equity-focused benefits. These tools have contributed to identifying and reaching more than 100 businesses including policy implementation.

In 2016, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) partnered with the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (RMHIDTA) to co-chair a multidisciplinary Heroin Response work group. This presentation will cover the results of the group's mixed methods survey of individuals experiencing opioid use disorders in the Denver-Metro area (n=713), and how the group is using these findings to inform strategy development.

The Larimer and Weld County Community Health Surveys are address-based mixed-mode surveys that use stratified random sampling. Results reveal that sub-county and subgroup health gaps exist. Examples of gaps and other findings used to help advance local health improvement goals will be highlighted. This session will describe successes in providing refined community health snapshots; present methodological challenges and lessons learned, and discuss how developing local data infrastructure can help advance community health improvement.

The Denver Healthy Corner Store Initiative, funded by the Colorado Health Foundation, is now it it's third and final year of operation. The purpose of this presentation will be to discuss identified challenges and the role of local government with multi-sector community partners to implementing systemic and policy-based changes needed to support the programmatic goals of increased healthy food intake and improved health outcomes for under served population.

As health care systems increasingly seek to leverage Information & Referral systems to address health and social determinants of health needs, innovative approaches to connecting patients to community resources are needed. Denver Public Health collaborated with Mile High United Way to enhance the 2-1-1 resource database to support patient electronic referral (eReferral) to Diabetes Prevention Programs at the point of care. This session will present lessons learned while creating an electronically searchable community resource inventory.

Denver’s public health agencies committed in 2017 to conduct a health assessment focused specifically on the experiences of young people. This session describes the process of hiring young people to lead this health assessment effort and explores the principles of community based participatory research that were used throughout the implementation of this project. Participants will leave this session better understanding the value of engaging with youth directly to conduct this work.

This presentation will provide an overview of Colorado’s innovative multi-disciplinary approach to address the opioid epidemic, highlighting progress made in the following four strategies: 1) Enhance and maximize Colorado’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) 2) Support the implementation of community-level interventions 3) Conduct state policy evaluation 4) Support the collaboration between law enforcement, public health, and treatment, to address the rise of heroin use disorders in Colorado.

Approximately one in six children in Denver is obese. Children spend a significant amount of time in child care, giving caregivers unique opportunities to teach healthy habits. Denver’s HEAL in Child Care program combines technical assistance, adult education and shared resources to promote evidence-based policy, system and environment best practices related to nutrition, physical activity, screen time reduction and breastfeeding support. Presentation will include information on program development, recruitment strategies, results, successes and lessons learned.

Several local public health partners from the Denver Metro area developed a media campaign to encourage HPV vaccination among youth ages 11-17. The campaign heavily targeted moms ages 30-55 with messages about cancer prevention. Rather than drive them to an informational website for facts, the campaign encouraged them to talk to a doctor about HPV vaccine. Presenters will share how they developed this strategy and initial results from the campaign.

This session will explore the process for developing an interactive online training program from conception to launch. The evaluate module contains both didactic and engaging elements that walk participants through the real-time development of a project theory, a logic model, and finally an evaluation plan. Presenters will discuss what went into the development, piloting, and eventual utilization of the online evaluation module.

During the summer of 2017 the Family and Intercultural Resource Center (FIRC), High Country Conservation Center (HC3), Dillon Valley Elementary (DVE) and Summit County WIC partnered together to revive the DVE Community Garden. The goal of this partnership was to create a welcoming community space where gardening and local produce is made accessible to all Dillon Valley residents. Through WIC Innovation Funding from the Colorado Health Foundation, Summit County WIC was able to increase involvement at the garden and pilot offering WIC appointments at the garden. This presentation will focus on the community collaboration required to meet the below objectives and highlight WIC's efforts to offer appointments in a non-traditional setting.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded the development of a Colorado Congenital Heart Disease surveillance system through an innovative collaboration between Colorado’s public health institutions, health care organizations and academic institutions. In this session we will discuss how we recruited different organizations across Colorado, the data sharing and security agreements, and how we tackled record linkage and de-duplication of cases who receive health care across different institutions in Colorado.

Want to learn more about bridging partnerships with multi-sector organizations to support schools in making sustainable change around health? Come to this session to learn how! You’ll experience first hand how a local public health department, non-profit organization & university collaborated to capitalize on resources to improve school health and well-being. The partnership enhanced school wellness programming and changes to the built environment by creating health policies, developing evaluation plans, and providing financial support.

Calling climate change the biggest threat to public health facing mankind, APHA is urging public health professionals to learn more about the climate crisis and be agents of change in their communities. There are viable solutions that can reduce carbon emissions and reverse global warming, even if the current Federal Government disengages. Attendees of this session will see a version of the Climate Reality Organization presentation (created by Al Gore) adapted specifically for PHiR attendees.

Policies, practices, and programs that shape environments generally fall outside the jurisdiction of health agencies. To advance health equity, practitioners must work across sectors such as education, transportation, and housing - Health in All Policies (HiAP) is one increasingly popular approach. While implementing HiAP can be challenging, certain key elements contribute to success. In this interactive session, strategies will be shared from CDPHE as well as from others around the country who have implemented HiAP.

Presenters will outline how we developed and implemented our Hidden Sugar campaign, targeted to low-income, English and Spanish speaking communities. The Partnership tracked ad impressions, website metrics, and pledge rates to monitor and adjust the campaign to boost performance. We will share how we affordably expanded campaign reach, and the results of the post-pledge survey to determine campaign impact. We will discuss successes and challenges in campaign implementation and working with a marketing agency.

Nationally and in Colorado, opioid use disorders have emerged as a significant public health concern. In 2014, Colorado legislators passed a bill that granted the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) access to the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) for surveillance purposes. Although the PDMP has been in operation as a clinical decision-making tool, CDPHE now utilizes the PDMP to evaluate prescribing and dispensing of controlled substances at the population-level.

This useful and interactive workshop aims to introduce participants to basic quality improvement (QI) principles and practices through plain language, relevant examples, and engaging activities. The session is based on a successful QI training provided to staff in the Prevention Services Division at CDPHE and is a great opportunity for professionals new to public health/QI. Participants will gain a solid understanding of what QI is and how it can be applied to public health innovation.

The Health Education Program (HEP) was created in 2008 and serves students at 17 Denver Health School Based Health Centers. All sites dispense contraception, condoms, and have access to a Health Educator. The HEP follows characteristics of effective clinic programs outlined by The National Campaign.This session delineates to public health practitioners how clinic programs can impact population health, and showcase an innovative and inclusive HEP in Denver that contributed to the drop in teen births.

Web-based surveys are becoming more popular but questions remain regarding the extent which internet responders are representative of the general population. This session discusses the pros and cons of using two survey modes- mail and internet - in a general population survey. Participants attending this session will be able to explain the key features of a mixed mode survey design and discuss the pros and cons of using a mixed mode survey.

This session will explore thematic challenges and barriers of advancing tobacco control public policies in Colorado within a hierarchical framework of policy change. Colorado tobacco control grantees report quarterly on the barriers and challenges they experienced during their public policy campaigns. These reports will be aggregated based on grantees’ specific phase of policy work and reviewed to identify common themes. These findings may help attendees strengthen their own public policy experiences and approaches.

School-located immunization clinics are a proven strategy to increase vaccination coverage in school-aged children, benefiting public health, schools and families alike. Created in partnership with successful programs in Denver, Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition’s toolkit compiles research and strategies into a comprehensive guide to support local public health agencies in the step-by-step planning process. Attend to learn practical strategies, special considerations and resources needed to initiate a school-located immunization clinic program in your community.

Motor vehicle crashes are still among the leading causes of injury deaths and hospitalizations for Coloradans. Local communities can play an important role in making population-based changes to improve driving behaviors and reduce crashes. CDOT’s highway safety office provides funding opportunities for local communities to implement strategies to improve traffic safety in their community. CDPHE has staff to provide technical assistance to help communities apply for and implement these traffic safety strategies.

The County Road 120 Trail, between Salida and Poncha Springs in Southern Chaffee County was completed in May 2017 after many years of planning. This project tells a unique story how local governments, grassroots volunteers, businesses, agencies and individuals partnered to benefit the entire community. Learn how non-profit volunteers and partners maximized their financial resources to create a network of trails throughout the County, build community health, enhance the local economy and promote active living.

While public health and clinical care share the common goal of improved health, their approaches to moving the needle can be drastically different. Regional Health Connectors (RHCs) are a new workforce in Colorado whose full-time job is to connect primary care with community-based behavioral health and social services. This one-hour showcase will demonstrate how RHCs connect public health, primary care and community organizations by working closely with practice transformation programs that support quality improvement in clinics. A panel of RHCs will engage with the audience in an interactive question-and-answer session to share ideas for involving public health in the Quadruple Aim.

Are you interested in learning about health equity and the public health landscape in Colorado? What can you do about it as a student? Come learn about the new changes to the CPHA Student Committee and brainstorm ideas of how to bring public health to the forefront of Colorado. If you are new to Colorado or are not familiar with the public health community this is a great opportunity to learn more about it. All students are welcome!

The use of opioid prescribing guidelines is a recommended intervention strategy to combat the current opioid epidemic. However, little research exists on how well opioid prescriptions follow guideline recommendations and the impact of following guidelines on returning a patient to health. This session will present results on adherence rates to opioid guidelines for patients with a carpal tunnel release procedure and reductions in disability durations and medical costs when complying with opioid prescribing guidelines.

Addressing complex social issues require multidisciplinary approaches to achieve policy, environment and system change. Collective movements are uniformly recognized as vital to address complex interrelated social issues. However, traditional grants-making or philanthropic practices that fund collective movements are often fragmented and time-limited, allocate funds in small amounts, and focus on issues rather than capacity building. Join this exciting presentation by veteran practitioners who have forged exciting funding approaches to support collective movements.

All student attendees are invited to meet local public health professionals from across the state. Through the use of a speed dating format, students will have the opportunity to meet with multiple public health professionals to learn about their careers and how they got there. If you are a public health professional in Colorado, we need you! Please volunteer to join our speed networking event to discuss your company and career with public health students. This fantastic event isn't possible without volunteers like you.

Students and Professionals, please RSVP here!