Happy New Year!

2024 starts off with the Idaho Legislature, and we've got resources to help!

Jan 10, 2024

The Idaho Legislature started its regular session on Monday, Jan. 8. The Legislature sets the department budgets and makes decisions about state laws and policy. It generally lasts until the end of March, but it sometimes can last into April. It can seem like a lot to keep track of, but there are some resources that help. Bookmark them for future reference!

Division of Public Health Legislative Affairs site has several helpful links for tracking legislation, bill analysis, interactions with legislators, and more to help coordinate DPH interactions with the Legislature to ensure consistent and strategic communications.
House Health and Welfare Committee handles most of DHW’s legislation and rules on the House side. You’ll find a list of members, agendas, and recordings of committee hearings.
Senate Health and Welfare Committee handles most of DHW’s legislation and rules on the Senate side. You’ll find a list of members, agendas, and recordings of committee hearings.
Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee sets our budgets. You’ll find a list of members, agendas, and recordings of committee hearings.
The website for the Idaho Legislature has links to all the committees, bills, a calendar, and lots of legislative resources.
Idaho in Session is where you can watch events live and recorded in the statehouse if you are unable to attend in person. You can also download recordings from the committee sites.

🦃 Weekly POLL | This week’s question is: Did you set some goals for the new year?

Highlighting staff news, achievements, and milestones.

👏 New name, same great work! The Bureau of Equity and Strategic Partnership (BESP) has evolved the Health Disparities Program to more appropriately align with the bureau’s strategy and innovation initiatives that also encompass health disparities priorities. The bureau’s work across the division, DHW, and external partners are both broad and specific, and involve priorities of current and those that are emerging. To that note, the program name has been changed to the Strategy and Innovation Team, effective Dec. 12.

👏 Well Done! The Get Healthy Idaho Initiative was included in an ASTHO blog post titled “Flexibility of PHHS block grant supports health equity in communities.” Idaho was included in a list of recipients who are using the block grant creatively.

Get Healthy Idaho is an initiative born out of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s statewide health improvement plan, focused on “investing in place-based community-led collaboratives with the goal of advancing equity within communities.” This initiative allows for the communities to decide how to best create innovative solutions for their needs. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare utilized the flexibility of the PHHS Block Grant to support these communities, allowing them to maintain fidelity to health equity by advancing solutions that are led by the communities they aim to help.

🦠 No holiday break for viruses — COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases did NOT take a break over the holidays, according to wastewater surveillance data across the nation. It's important to take precautions to prevent the spread of respiratory diseases.

If you feel unwell:

For teleworkers, assess if you can continue working or need sick time.
If in the office, inform your supervisor and determine if remote work is possible or if sick time is necessary.
Get tested for COVID-19, considering similar symptoms with other respiratory viruses.
If positive, follow the CDC isolation and exposure calculator and wear masks upon returning to the office according to guidelines.

To protect yourself and others:

Stay home if sick.
Practice frequent handwashing.
Cover coughs and sneezes.
Consider vaccination.
Maintain at least six feet of distance in public.

Resources:

COVID-19 information: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html
RSV symptoms: https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/about/symptoms.html
Flu information: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/

Interesting health related topics to catch up on.

📖 READ | 🎧 LISTEN | Read or listened to any great public health related articles or podcasts lately? Send them to Niki.Forbing-Orr@dhw.idaho.gov and we’ll consider them for use in future newsletters.

Learning and growth opportunities. ☑️ Internal / ✅ External / ⭐ Idaho

✅ Trusting Local Knowledge: Strategies to Strengthen Local Capacity for Community Health Improvement from ASTHO / Jan 18 | ASTHO will hold a virtual session featuring speakers from Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) to overview a statewide initiative to implement a locally-led community health improvement process by providing resources and support to County Health Councils. Tennessee’s County Health Councils have been active in almost 95 counties for over 20 years. These organizations are essential to uplift community voices and ensure the knowledge, experiences, and stories of local collaborators are leveraged to drive community change. REGISTER HERE

✅ Navigating Misinformation for Community Health from the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice / Jan 30 / Cost: FREE | The spread of misinformation has shown itself to be a major threat to public health. This month’s Hot Topics in Practice will consider the impact of misinformation on the media ecosystem and will reveal the essential steps that health-focused organizations can utilize in uncertain times. In this hour-long webinar, Josh Gryniewicz, CEO of the social change consultancy Odd Duck, will focus on strategies to navigate deceptive messaging across the media. Josh will discuss the misinformation continuum, with a special emphasis on distrust, the importance of storytelling and building trust, and other essential keys to navigating misinformation. He will then discuss actions that will help public health practitioners build trust for pro-health outcomes in their communities. REGISTER HERE

✅ Policies Supporting Vaccine-like Preventative Products from ASTHO / Jan 30 | Recently, a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) monoclonal antibody was approved by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to protect against severe illness in infants under eight months of age. This learning community session will focus on state policy opportunities to support greater access to RSV preventative antibody products. After hearing from experts, participants will discuss challenges and opportunities when including the new preventative antibody products in their state childhood vaccine programs. Participants will have a better understanding of the various policy options and peer strategies to expand access to preventative antibody products. REGISTER HERE

✅ Employing an Equity Impact Assessment in Decision-Making from ASTHO / Jan 30 | ASTHO will hold a virtual seminar on Jan. 30 to review the Equity Impact Assessment (EIA) process, developed by Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). Participants will hear more about this equity practice-based evidence model aiming to reduce racial and ethnic disparities and increase equitable outcomes for all. The EIA assists decision-makers in assessing objectivity and bias while producing policies, processes, programs, practices, and budgets. Attendees will learn about the preliminary process findings, including ways to engage priority populations and directly impacted communities. Participants will hear from MDHHS regarding EIA-produced knowledge and capacity increases to advance equity at work. The agency is also gearing up to expand the EIA process across the State of Michigan, with plans to publish an EIA Toolkit in 2024. REGISTER HERE