http://www.phha.mlanet.org/blog/?p=75
Members of the Public Health / Health Administration (PH/HA) section of the Medical Library Association (MLA) have created websites to provide information about the influenza A H1N1 (swine flu). If your library has created a page, you can leave a comment to have it added to the list. [scb]

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has released a new report called Hard Times in the Heartland: Health Care in Rural America, outlining the health care challenges facing rural communities. Hard Times in the Heartland indicates that nearly 50 million people in rural America face challenges accessing health care. Not only do these Americans face higher rates of poverty, they report more health problems, are more likely to be uninsured, and have less access to a primary health care providers than do Americans living in urban areas. http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/hardtimes/ruralreport.pdf

[posted on Kansas Rural Health Information Service] scb

MedlinePlus Health Topic on Swine Flu
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/swineflu.html

Environmental Health and Toxicology Links on Swine Flu
http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/swineflu.html
The National Library of Medicine Division of Specialized Information Services has released an Enviro-Health Links page on Swine Flu. This page contains links to resources about the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak, including transmission, prevention, treatment, and the genetic makeup of the influenza virus. [scb]

Follow this URL for up-to-date information from the Centers for Disease Control about the recent outbreak of Swine Flu. http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/

[rb]

Check out the training and workshops by the The Homeland Defense Journal Training Workshops

For details on these and all training and workshops, visit www.HomelandDefenseJournal.net

Upcoming Emergency Management Workshops for June and July 2009

Incident Management for First Responders in Different Cultures - A two day workshop on implementing Cultural Competence in Dangerous Situations Jun 16-17, 2009 | Arlington, VA
Exercise Design and Evaluation Workshop Jun 17-18, 2009 Arlington, VA
Emergency Capability Analysis Workshop Jun 19, 2009 | Arlington, VA
Emergency Preparedness for Libraries Jun 18-19, 2009 | Arlington, VA
All-Hazards Regional Evacuation Plans - An Interactive Two-Day Workshop on Developing an All-Hazards Regional Evacuation Plan Jun 23-24, 2009 | Arlington, VA
How to Develop a Business Continuity Plan/Continuity of Operations Plan That Really Works Workshop Jul 14, 2009 | Arlington, VA
Best Practices for Disaster Communications Jul 15, 2009 | Arlington, VA
Search and Rescue Certification Standards Jul 16, 2009 | Arlington, VA

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, today unveiled its first comprehensive Physicians’ Outreach Initiative, NIDAMED, which gives medical professionals tools and resources to screen their patients for tobacco, alcohol, illicit, and nonmedical prescription drug use. The NIDAMED resources include an online screening tool, a companion quick reference guide, and a comprehensive resource guide for clinicians.

The initiative stresses the importance of the patient-doctor relationship in identifying unhealthy behaviors before they evolve into life threatening conditions. NIDA-modified ASSIST tools are specifically designed to fit into today’s busy clinical practices. Doctors can access the new tools at http://www.drugabuse.gov by clicking on the NIDAMED icon.

Also included in the NIDAMED physician toolkit is a patient-tested postcard that encourages patients to “Tell Your Doctors About All the Drugs You Use” and offers Web links for further information. Doctors are encouraged to put the cards in their waiting rooms to be read by patients before their appointments.
[read the complete NIH News Release is online at: http://www.nih.gov/news/health/apr2009/nida-20.htm] scb

The March 17, 2009 online “Strategies to Improve Patient Health Literacy” class has been archived on the MCR website and is available for viewing. This one hour session defines health literacy and the challenges to patients; explores the impact low health literacy has on quality patient care, and describes resources to improve health literacy.

Check out other asynchronous training and educational opportunities, including web casts, web- and CD-based tutorials, and PowerPoint presentations from previous classes at http://nnlm.gov/mcr/education/online.html#A9. [da]

Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Wyoming will come together to provide a regional conference on educational basics of sexually transmitted diseases June 10-12, 2009 at the Kansas City Airport Hilton. Key note speakers will include: Jeanne White-Ginder, mother of Ryan White; Kenya Masala, expert on kinesthetic learning modules; and Forrest L Alton, Executive Director at the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

ONLINE registration only.
For more information and registration go to http://www.ksde.org and scroll down the left side of the page to find the conference, or go directly to http://conferences.ksde.org/Default.aspx?alias=conferences.ksde.org/hiv

CEU’s will be available for nurses. For nurses: Please bring your nursing license.
CHES credits will be available.
Two hours of graduate credit through Baker University will be available on site, June 10, 2009 at an additional cost of $50 an hour.

Posted on Kansas Rural Health Information Service [scb]

In 2008, the Information Use Management & Policy Institute at Florida State University was awarded a $218,000 grant to assist public libraries and local communities to better plan for and respond to hurricanes. From this project came a webcast with six experts sharing their first-hand experience in assisting public libraries planning for and respond to hurricanes. Their work will contribute to a study identifying public library best practices in hurricane preparedness and response. In addition, a web portal was created to organize and provide access to a broad range of information for public librarians and local communities regarding hurricanes. [da]