Virginia Public Health Association
Welcome!
The Virginia Public Health Association (VAPHA) is an alliance of multi-disciplinary health professionals from the public and private sectors committed to improving the health of all Virginians.
The Association, founded in 1950, represents the public's interest in the health of all Virginia residents, and we are affiliated with the American Public Health Association.
VAPHA Partners with Virginia's Graduate Public Health Programs for 3rd Annual Statewide Career Fair!
Take advantage of this exciting opportunity to learn about careers in public health. The Virginia Public Health Association and its partners invite students, alumni and other interested individuals to participate in our 3rd Annual Statewide Career and Internship Fair on January 27, 2012. Participants will be exposed to the plentiful professional opportunities in public health as well as recent advancements in health research and development. Registration is free for current students, and is required to reserve your spot.
Employers - don't miss this chance to tell students from around the state about your job opportunities. Click here for details on employer registration.
Public Health Students have until January 10 to submit their poster abstracts to present research and projects at the event. Abstracts should be no more than 200 words and summarize your rationale, methodology (if applicable), and findings/outcomes. Please include the names of all authors, with contact information, as well as the name of your college/university and program, and note whether your submission will be for display only or should be included in the judging. Prizes will be awarded for those submissions that are judged. Absract submission deadline: 5 p.m., Tuesday, January 10, 2012. Submit your abstracts to VAPHA's administrator, Mary Kidd.
National Public Health Week 2012: "A Healthier America Begins Today: Join the Movement!"
National Public Health Week 2012 will be April second through the eighth. The website is now active and the brochure is ready to be downloaded.
During NPHW 2012 the American Public Health Association invites people to promote ways to live healthier lives and highlight this year's theme "A Healthier America Begins Today: Join the Movement!" NPHW will build upon the National Prevention Strategy to create a healthier nation by promoting healthy behaviors in the following public health areas:
- Active Living and Healthy Eating
- Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs
- Communicable Diseases
- Reproductive and Sexual Health
- Mental and Emotional Well-Being
Click here to download the NPHW brochure. For more information, visit the NPHW website.
2011 America's Health Rankings Released
United Health Foundation’s 2011 America’s Heath Rankings®, released on December 6th, finds that troubling increases in obesity, diabetes and children in poverty are offsetting improvements in smoking cessation, preventable hospitalizations and cardiovascular deaths. The report finds that the country’s overall health did not improve between 2010 and 2011 – a drop from the 0.5 percent average annual rate of improvement between 2000 and 2010 and the 1.6 percent average annual rate of improvement seen in the 1990s.
“Where people live matters. Every state can make improvements to ensure healthier quality of lives for their residents,” said Reed Tuckson, M.D., United Health Foundation board member and executive vice president and chief of medical affairs, UnitedHealth Group. “In the history of the Rankings, we have seen many examples of stakeholders coming together to improve their standing. States such as Tennessee and Maine – which made explicit efforts to improve their rankings – have shown us that improved public health is achievable but must be tackled in a concerted and aggressive way.”
“The Rankings provides comprehensive data states can use to develop prevention solutions and health-improvement plans – empowering their residents to live long, healthy and productive lives,” said Jud Richland, M.P.H., president and CEO of Partnership for Prevention.
For the complete press release, click here. To see the complete Rankings, click here.
Choose Virginia
The Virginia Department of Health recently unveiled a new resource aimed at bolstering the state’s health care workforce. The Choose Virginia website, www.choosevirginia.net, provides resources to potential and existing health care professionals, even providing assistance to secondary school students beginning to explore career options.
The website offers information about Virginia's health profession training programs, pre-health student summer program opportunities, employment opportunities, workforce incentive programs and features the newly developed Virginia Health Professions Student Registry. Adults seeking a career in health care can enter their information in the registry to receive ongoing support through regional Area Health Education Centers. The centers serve as a health workforce pipeline, linking registered users to resources, activities and schools, ultimately empowering students and strengthening Virginia’s health care workforce.
Read the full press release.
County Health Roadmaps
The New River Valley Planning District Commission has been awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Roadmaps to Health Community Grants to improve the health of people living in the community. The grants, which will support two-year state and local efforts among policy-makers, business, education, health care, public health and community organizations, will be managed by Community Catalyst and are part of the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program, a collaboration of RWJF and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. The twelve grantees, selected from more than 300 initial applicants, will build on the RWJF/UWPHI County Health Rankings model, which highlights the critical role that factors such as education, jobs and our environment play in influencing how healthy people are and how long they live.
In addition to the Community Grants, the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program will include other efforts to mobilize local communities and national partners and leaders, including grants to national organizations to activate local leaders and affiliates to improve health; a prize program to recognize communities taking action whose promising efforts will lead to better health; and, tools and resources to help groups working to improve the health of their communities. Taken together, the Rankings and Roadmaps to Health are addressing our nation’s health crisis through the creation of healthier places to live, learn, work and play. Click here for more on the project.
Lead from Where You Stand Available on You Tube
The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services Office of Cultural Competency Conference entitled Lead from Where You Stand, is now available on You Tube. The conference focused on organizational cultural competence planning. It introduced the concepts behind cultural competence, demonstrated a planning model designed by the Statewide Cultural and Linguistic Competence Committee, discussed data and data collection in the pursuit of health equity, and explored strategies for effective community engagement. The 5-hour program has been broken up into five separate segments:
County Health Rankings Show That There is More to Health than Health Care
How healthy is your county? A new set of reports released on March 30 rank the health of nearly every county in the nation and show that much of what affects health occurs outside of the doctor’s office. For the second year, the County Health Rankings confirm the critical role that factors such as education, jobs, income, and environment play in how healthy people are and how long they live. The Rankings, based on the latest data available for each county, is the only tool of its kind that measures the overall health of each county in all 50 states on the multiple factors that influence health. In addition, to further illustrate the connection between social factors and health, the Foundation along with the Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center on Human Needs unveiled the County Health Calculator, a new interactive online app that shows people how much higher levels of education and income influence premature death rates in a county.
Click here for more, including a link to the outcomes map for Virginia.
Advancing Health Equity
Research has documented striking disparities in the life expectancy and mortality of those living in the United States, with Asian females outliving black males by 17.6 years on average in 2010. In Virginia, 10.2% of the total population and 13.8% of children (250,000 total children) lived below the Federal Poverty Level in 2008 and, while African Americans make up just 19% of the Virginia population, African American children account for 47% of the children living in poverty in Virginia. Ample evidence demonstrates that some subgroups in the United States are more likely to experience death and diseases, such as HIV and cancer. Despite efforts to reduce health inequities, research indicates widening socioeconomic disparities and continuing gaps.
VAPHA's efforts to improve health equity in Virginia are ongoing!The Virginia Public Health Association and our partners explored issues surrounding health equity during the Health Equity Conference in Richmond on September 22-23. Thanks to all of our partners, and our Platinum Sponsor, the Office of Minority Health and Health Equity, Virginia Department of Health, for their help in making the program such a success. Click here for more information on the program, including links to the speaker presentations and video clips on You Tube (scroll to the bottom of the page for the links).
We are also continuing our partnership with UVA to offer a series of health Equity Webinars. The most recent webinar, the County Health Rankings webinar, Planning and Public Health: An Inflection Point for Integrated Practice - Place Making for the Production of Wellness was held in conjunction with the VAPHA Spring Meeting on April 29th. You can view this and previous sessions in the series (Health Impact Assessment (HIA) - Health Equity, The ISMs and Health Equity: Understanding and Addressing Racism, Sexism, Classism and More, or A Road MAPP to Health Equity, Using Community-based Participatory Approaches to Reduce Infant Mortality) by following this link.
Check out the latest research!
Dr. Ann C. Klassen, the associate dean for research at the Drexel University School of Public Health, was recently published in the American Journal of Public Health as co-author of a study that links racism and cancer-related health behaviors. Click here for details.
There's also still the health Equity social network that was formed following our 2009 Health Equity Conference. Please join the social network website where you can:
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Start discussions and answer questions in the forum
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Write your own blog posts and share comments on other posts
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Add events and upload photos and videos
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Identify collaborators to engage in activities to promote health equity
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View presentations from the Health Equity Conference
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and more!
We hope you’ll take advantage of this website on a routine basis to learn, ask questions, share, and connect with others who also want to advance health equity across the Commonwealth!
Archived Public Health News
