A new poll asked U.S. adults about their experiences and found that 78 percent of those asked had recently experienced a severe weather event –tornado, hurricane or tropical storm, wildfire, major flooding, major drought, and severe cold/winter storms.  More than half said that extreme heat was the most impactful weather in the last five years, and nearly a quarter of the survey respondents reported that climate change is threatening their health a great deal or a lot.  The report is a joint project from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Public Radio, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Researchers found that rural patients seeking care at health centers funded by HRSA’s Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) experienced lower unmet and delayed medical care and reported that they were more likely to obtain a flu vaccine. At the same time, researchers identified decreases in Pap tests, mammogram screenings, and an increase in emergency department visits. This indicates that health centers in rural areas may still face barriers to providing timely or accessible preventative services that would reduce their patients’ need for acute medical care. Research findings highlight the importance of HRSA’s continued investments to increase access to preventive and primary care services in rural areas. To read this article, and other articles about quality care delivered by health centers, visit BPHC’s Health Center Library.  

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a broad, new initiative to connect individuals and families to housing, health care, and supportive services.  Total funding of $322 million is a supplement to HUD’s Continuum of Care (CoC) Program, with $43 million for incremental housing vouchers for at-risk households, and $54 million set aside for projects in rural areas.  The Supplemental to Address Unsheltered and Rural Homelessness requires collaboration among housing authorities, health care organizations, and those that provide support for individuals and families facing issues that often lead to homelessness – such as domestic violence, youth trauma, and substance use disorder.  HUD will hold a 90-minute Kick Off Webinar on Tuesday, June 28 at 2:30 pm ET.   Next week, the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy will provide further details for rural health providers in a webinar on Thursday, June 30 at 2:00 pm ET. 

A new issue of the Organization for Safety, Asepsis, and Prevention (OSAP) Infection Control in Practice – Team Huddle has been released. This issue re-emphasizes respiratory hygiene and highlights diseases that a respiratory hygiene/cough etiquette program can prevent. A workplace scenario challenges the dental team to evaluate the cost-effective use of consumables for infection prevention and what to consider when deciding to use a reusable item or its disposable counterpart. Learn more about OSAP by clicking here.

The Head Start Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center has released a tip sheet about the oral health signs of child maltreatment, specifically as they relate to physical and sexual abuse. There are resources for working with families to help prevent child maltreatment, recognize oral health signs of child maltreatment, and understand the requirements for reporting suspected child maltreatment to state child protection agencies. It is part of the Brush up on Oral Health series.

The National Nurse-Led Care Consortium (NNCC) is excited to announce a new AmeriCorps State Program to support the recruitment, training, and development of a new generation of public health leaders to support behavioral health service programs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. NNCC’s AmeriCorps members will serve in the community to learn how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the utilization of behavioral health services and establish a catalog of local resources. These members will expand the capacity for organizations to screen and refer individuals for substance use disorder and mental health treatment and identify critical services needed in response to the ongoing pandemic. To learn more about how the program can benefit your health center click here.

With concerns around workforce recruitment and retention on the top of most leaders’ minds in 2022, Nonstop Administration and Insurance Services, Inc. (Nonstop) and the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved (ACU) have partnered to create a strategic executive guide to support community health center leaders committed to fostering employee retention and resilience and advancing organizational equity. Click here to read the ACU guide.

As part of the Biden Administration’s effort to make information on baby formula more accessible to families, the Department of Human Services (HHS) has launched the Information for Families During the Formula Shortage website which contains a comprehensive list of resources and guidance for families seeking formula during the shortage. This site is also available in Spanish, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, and Navajo. HHS has also created a Baby Formula Shortage Social Media Toolkit that provides social media graphics and social media copy for posts, also available in Spanish, Vietnamese and Haitian Creole. The graphics and copy help direct people to the HHS site and offer resources to find infant formula, as well as guidance and best practices for families in need of baby formula.

An estimated one in five adults, 18–64 years old, who had COVID-19 previously will develop at least one persistent symptom related to the infection, a CDC analysis found. Now, new treatment guidelines recognize that patients with long COVID-19 could be at risk for heart disease. The guidance recommends that physicians carefully screen patients for potential cardiovascular complications following long COVID-19. Even patients who are not at high risk for heart disease or complications may be at risk for future health problems, the guidance says.

Integrating rapid diabetes screening into community-based COVID-19 testing sites has the potential to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and entry into care for diabetes, according to JAMA Network Open. Building on an existing community-based COVID-19 testing program, they found that integrating rapid testing for diabetes was feasible, reached low-income Latinx individuals, and identified many persons with prediabetes and diabetes, most of whom lacked access to services in formal health care settings. Leveraging pandemic-related public health responses represents an important opportunity for engaging socioeconomically disadvantaged populations in care for diabetes.