Tag: COVID-19

Public Health Law in the 21st Century: Exploring Authority, Equity, and Advocacy

Course Objectives

  • Describe how law serves as a foundation for public health practice.
  • Provide examples of how law serves as a social determinant of health.
  • Identify efforts to limit or diminish public health authority and how these efforts impact public health outcomes.
  • Provide examples of how law can be used to advance health and racial equity.
  • Highlight activities under way to strengthen public health advocacy at the local, state, and national levels.
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Date: April 4, 2023

Presenter:
Montrece Ransom, JD, MPH, ACC
Director, National Coordinating Center for Public Health Training 

Dawn Hunter, JD, MPH
Director, Southwestern Regional Network for Public Health Law

Montrece Ransom, JD, MPH and Dawn Hunter, JD, MPH present on public health law fundamentals. The presenters begin by explaining the basics of law in the United States and how it realtes to public health. They then discuss landmark supreme court cases and changes to public health authority since the COVID-19 pandemic. The presenters go on to discuss law as a tool for equity and racism as a public health crisis. Finally, the presenters explain how law can be used as a tool for public health practice.

Participants will be able to:

  • Describe how law serves as a foundation for public health practice.
  • Provide examples of how law serves as a social determinant of health
  • Identify efforts to limit or diminish public health authority and how these efforts impact public health outcomes.
  • Provide examples of how law can be used to advance health and racial equity.
  • Highlight activities under way to strengthen public health advocacy at the local, state, and national levels.
COVID-19: From Pandemic to Endemic

Course Objective

  • Differentiate between “Pandemic” and “Endemic,” with examples from COVID-19 and other infectious diseases
  • Describe examples from the HIV epidemic that may apply to the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Explain implications for public health practice as the field transitions from a pandemic to endemic response to COVID-19
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Date: April 5th, 2022

Presenter:
Dr. Jessica Justman
 Associate Professor of Medicine in Epidemiology
Columbia University Irving Medical Center

In this month’s Log-in2Learn, Dr. Jessica Justman, Associate Professor of Medicine in Epidemiology at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, goes over epidemiology concepts and skills as illustrated by the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic. She starts by defining the terms epidemic, pandemic, and endemic as they relate to infectious diseases. She then explains how COVID-19 went from an outbreak to an epidemic, and reviews the progression and classification of epidemics. In addition to the example of COVID-19, she speaks to the toll and spread of other pandemics in history. In particular, she highlights the similarities between HIV and COVID-19 pandemics, including spread, overall burden and disparities, public health and community-driven responses, communication challenges, and issues of uncertainty and fear. Finally, she summarizes lessons learned from the progression and response to COVID-19, commenting on how we could have been better prepared.

Participants will be able to:

  1. Differentiate between “Pandemic” and “Endemic,” with examples from COVID-19 and other infectious diseases
  2. Describe examples from the HIV epidemic that may apply to the COVID-19 pandemic
  3. Explain implications for public health practice as the field transitions from a pandemic to endemic response to COVID-19
School of Hard Knocks: The Impact of the Pandemic on School Children and Their Families

Course Objective

  • Identify forces currently at play which are impacting child well-being
  • Explain how workforce pressures factor into access to mental health services
  • Describe what can be done to help support schools, children, and families
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Date: December 7th, 2021

Presenter:
Donna M. Bradbury & Bonnie Catlin
NYS Office of Mental Health
Office of Prevention & Health Initiatives

In this month’s Log-in2Learn webinar, Donna M. Bradbury, MA, LMHC, and Bonnie Catlin, LCSW, discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted school-aged children, their families, and how the NYS Office of Mental Health (OMH) has mounted a response. They begin by providing epidemiological context to the current mental health crisis, including risk factors and changes in prevalence, as well as the OMH’s response to address the disportionate impact on underserved populations. They summarize the strengths and limitations of OMH’s shift to telehealth, such as barriers to access, caregiver involvement, provider responsiveness, and privacy concerns. With new federal resources to expand access, they go over response efforts, such as Project Hope and a 56% increase in number of OMH clinic satellites, as well as prevention programs, such as Healthy Steps, Project TEACH, the NYS trauma-informed network, and restorative practices. They wrap up by presenting the systems of care framework and answering questions from webinar attendees.

Participants will be able to:

  1. Identify forces currently at play which are impacting child well-being
  2. Explain how workforce pressures factor into access to mental health services
  3. Describe what can be done to help support schools, children, and families
Managing NYC death reporting from the epicenter of a pandemic: COVID-19 in Spring 2020

Course Objective

  • Describe the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS)
  • Describe the process and parties involved in registering a death.
  • Describe the operational, and other, factors that make timely, accurate registration of death possible
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Date: October 5th, 2021

Presenter:
Gretchen Van Wye, PhD, MA
Assistant Commissioner & City Registrar
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYCDOHMH)
Bureau of Vital Statistics, Division of Epidemiology

In this month’s Log-in2Learn webinar, Gretchen Van Wye, PhD, MA, discusses the challenges and importance of increased death reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic. She begins by recognizing death registration both as a fundamental right of persons, as well as instrumental to monitoring disease outbreaks. She highlights the contextual obstacles of the beginning of the pandemic, which was marked by initial denial and limited testing, but followed a geometric progression and the corresponding response needed. She then explains how death registration works in New York City, and shares the NYDOHMH’s plan to respond to its increased need, including staff, system, policy, and data changes.

Participants will learn about the following:

  1. Describe the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS)
  2. Describe the process and parties involved in registering a death.
  3. Describe the operational, and other, factors that make timely, accurate registration of death possible
Challenging Misinformation: Exploring Equity- and Community-Driven Strategies

Course Objective

  • Define terms such as “infodemic management”, and other current terminology as related to misinformation within a variety of interpersonal and media settings 
  • Discuss the link between misinformation, trust, and behavioral change, including issues surrounding the politicization of health information, historical reasons for mistrust among many groups, and the role of social media 
  • Describe promising equity-and community-driven strategies to: 
    • address misinformation 
    • build trust at the community and population levels  
    • strengthen communication systems to improve health, social, and policy outcomes 
  • Discuss relevant case studies and resource
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Date: September 7th 2021

Presenter:
Renata Schiavo, PhD, MA, CCL
Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Founder and Board President, Health Equity Initiative
Principal, Strategies for Equity and Communication Impact (SECI)

In this month’s Log-In2Learn webinar, Dr. Renata Schiavo, PhD, MA, CCL, surveys evidence-based systems strategies for health professionals to challenge misinformation. She begins by reviewing socio-ecological models from the science of trust, emphasizing the importance of social, political and environmental factors. While acknowledging the new challenges posed by social media, which does not rely on peer-review or fact-checking processes, she reminds us that misinformation is older than the information age, going over historical reasons for mistrust such as the Tuskegee syphilis study. She defines an effective infodemic response, goes over 7 types of mis/dis-information as well as healthy information behaviors. This background leads to the paradigm shift to equity- and community-driven strategies, which Dr.Schiavo breaks down by priority and explains how to incorporate into health promotion programming.

Participants will learn how to:

  1. Define terms such as “infodemic management”, and other current terminology as related to misinformation within a variety of interpersonal and media settings 
  2. Discuss the link between misinformation, trust, and behavioral change, including issues surrounding the politicization of health information, historical reasons for mistrust among many groups, and the role of social media 
  3. Describe promising equity-and community-driven strategies to: address misinformation, build trust at the community and population levels , strengthen communication systems to improve health, social, and policy outcomes 
  4. Discuss relevant case studies and resource
Redefining Resilience in the Post-COVID Era

Course Objective

  • Discuss how COVID 19 has exacerbated disparities within health departments.
  • Describe how to utilize trauma informed principles to shift internal policies and procedures to support resiliency amongst staff.
  • Identify the stages of trauma resilience and implementation into policies.
  • Explain the importance of viewing staff as whole people within an equity and resilience framework.
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Date: August 3rd, 2021

Presenter:
Mateo Belen, MSW
Trainer and Principle Consultant
A Mateo Consulting

In this month’s Log-in2Learn webinar, Mateo Belen, MSW, discusses how organizations can shift internal policies and procedures to support resilience amongst staff in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. He begins by introducing us to basic trauma informed principles and explains the need to consider impacts based on race and gender. Belen highlights the need to acknowledge racism as a public health crisis and the importance of recognizing its effects amongst our employees in addition to the communities we serve. He then spends time talking about how resilience can be seen as a coping mechanism and how it can be fostered by organizations. He shares effective strategies that can be incorporated into work structures in order to support resilience and provide adequate backing to employees in times of crisis.

Participants will be able to:

  1. Discuss how COVID 19 has exacerbated disparities within health departments.
  2. Describe how to utilize trauma informed principles to shift internal policies and procedures to support resiliency amongst staff.
  3. Identify the stages of trauma resilience and implementation into policies.
  4. Explain the importance of viewing staff as whole people within an equity and resilience framework.
State changes to alcohol availability during COVID-19: What can state/local public health departments do to protect communities’ health?

Course Objective

  • Describe trends in alcohol use and related harms over the last two decades.
  • Explain state level changes to alcohol availability during the pandemic.
  • Summarize state and local public health strategies to curtail industry sponsored efforts to increase in alcohol availability to protect population level harms.
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Date: May 4th 2021

Presenter:
Sean J. Haley, PhD, MPH
Asst. Professor of Health Policy and Management
City University of New York’s Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy

In this month’s Log-in2Learn webinar, Sean J. Haley, PhD, MPH, addresses the alarming increase in alcohol availability and consumption over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. He starts by providing context to the state of Alcohol Use Disorders amongst the U.S. population over the years. In detail, he then discusses the changes in attitudes and behaviors towards alcohol as the pandemic began to worsen and stay-at-home orders were placed. He highlights the unique characteristics of this increased consumption, identifying individual, social and structural factors. Dr. Haley makes sure to emphasize that this is not a temporary problem and substantiates his statement with research from past disasters, decade long trends and industry motivations. He then switches to what can be done to control this problem. He walks us through the many action steps, at varying levels, that can be taken by state and local public health departments in order to protect communities’ health.

Participants will learn the following:

  1. Describe trends in alcohol use and related harms over the last two decades.
  2. Explain state level changes to alcohol availability during the pandemic.
  3. Summarize state and local public health strategies to curtail industry sponsored efforts to increase in alcohol availability to protect population level harms.
The Challenge of Vaccine Hesitancy in the COVID Pandemic

Course Objective

  • Describe the continuum of vaccine acceptance and hesitancy
  • Identify the concerns that underlie hesitancy toward vaccination in general and COVID vaccination in particular 
  • Critique different approaches for achieving high uptake of COVID vaccines
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Date: March 2nd, 2021

Presenter:
James Colgrove, PhD, MPH
Professor of Sociomedical Sciences,
Columbia Mailman School of Public Health
Dean of the Postbac Premed Program,
Columbia School of General Studies

This month’s Log-in2learn webinar comes at an opportune time, in the midst of a national vaccine rollout. Our presenter, James Colgrove, PhD, MPH, covers everything you need to know about vaccine hesitancy in the U.S.. He starts off with a brief history of the roots of vaccine hesitancy in the country and explains how these views have developed into the spectrum that we see today. He then shifts his attention to the COVID-19 pandemic, discussing the available vaccine options, their development process and the public’s response to them. He carefully walks us through the different concerns regarding the vaccine and breaks down the demographic characteristics of each group. He lays a heavy emphasis on the need to address hesitancy using targeted strategies that meet the unique needs of each group. He shares a number of approaches to do this and highlights key messages that have been effective. He ends by reiterating the main challenges and the importance of addressing broken relationships and mistrust as we attempt to address vaccine hesitancy during COVID-19.

Participants will be able to:

  1. Describe the continuum of vaccine acceptance and hesitancy
  2. Identify the concerns that underlie hesitancy toward vaccination in general and COVID vaccination in particular 
  3. Critique different approaches for achieving high uptake of COVID vaccines
Policy Making and Systems Thinking: tools to help the public health workforce address challenging times

Course Objective

  • Define policy making in public health and how it can be used to achieve public health goals
  • Identify how systems thinking can strengthen public health policy development
  • Discuss how some of the essential steps in policy making and systems thinking can help address “wicked” public health challenges
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Date: January  12th, 2021

Presenter:
Sylvia Pirani, MPH, MS
Public Health Practice Consultant

Helen de Pinho, MBBCh, FCCH, MBA
Assistant Professor
Population and Family Health
Columbia University Medical Center

In this month’s Log-in2Learn, Helen de Pinho, MBBCh, FCCH, MBA, and Sylvia Pirani, MPH, MS, walk us through the process of policy making and the role of systems thinking in combating complex challenges. Sylvia starts by highlighting the steps required to craft good policy and emphasizes the importance of incorporating community members and stakeholders in the process. She then identifies some of the common obstacles seen during this process and shares instances of the same. Helen goes on to unpack the concept of systems thinking, explaining how it can be used and why it is such an essential tool for policy makers and the public health workforce. She demonstrates the ways in which systems thinking can be used to address complex situations and tricky relationships in the policy making process through a series of examples. Finally, they both identify the next steps in policy making and share useful resources for policy identification and systems thinking during challenging times.

Participants will be able to:

  1. Define policy making in public health and how it can be used to achieve public health goals
  2. Identify how systems thinking can strengthen public health policy development
  3. Discuss how some of the essential steps in policy making and systems thinking can help address “wicked” public health challenges
Buprenorphine Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Course Objective

  • Explain regulatory updates regarding buprenorphine treatment during a public health emergency
  • Describe practice-level changes in buprenorphine treatment throughout COVID-19
  • Discuss common issues affecting patients in buprenorphine treatment during COVID-19
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Date: July 7th, 2020

Presenter:
Tiffany Lu, MD, MS
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Montefiore Medical Center / Albert Einstein School of Medicine

In this month’s Log-in2Learn Dr. Tiffany Lu provides an overview of buprenorphine treatment prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges associated with treatment for opioid use disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Lu describes the communities hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and how the pandemic paved the way for regulation updates regarding buprenorphine treatment such as reduced restrictions and an increased use of telemedicine to treat opioid use disorders. The webinar also addresses some other measures put in place with buprenorphine treatment due to the public health emergency, including: longer prescriptions, halted urine drug testing (self reports), access to naloxone and harm reduction supplies. The presenter also shares available resources to support clinical providers as they face the challenges associated with buprenorphine treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants will be able to:

  1. Explain regulatory updates regarding buprenorphine treatment during a public health emergency
  2. Describe practice-level changes in buprenorphine treatment throughout COVID-19
  3. Discuss common issues affecting patients in buprenorphine treatment during COVID-19
Region 2 Public Health Training Center