Sessions at The Priester National Extension Health Conference on Thursday 12th April

Hot Breakfast Buffet Plus Healthy People 2020 Speaker
Debra Nichols, MD, MPH,
Public Health Advisor in the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

5 Concurrent Sessions

Jenn Crawford
Washington State University
Chelan-Doulgas County Extension

Come hear how Fit Fathers, Successful Families, Inside & Out (FFSFIO), an innovative parent education program is intervening to curb intergenerational patterns of abuse & neglect. The program targets fathers in the criminal justice system who are incarcerated, on probation, on parole, and/or receiving treatment for alcohol and or drug dependencies in semi-rural Washington state. FFSFIO integrates research-based social and fathering skills educational program for fathers (Fit2BFathers) with guided yoga instruction, the program models non-punitive discipline and communication strategies in both process and topic. FFSFIO combines mindfulness-based yoga instruction and parenting education. The FFSFIO program is generating evidence that combining yoga guided practice with parent education improves parental resilience. Parental resilience is recognized as one of five protective factors in child abuse prevention and can be defined as the ability to effectively respond as a parent. Another definition of parental resilience is the ability to empathize with oneself and with others (Higgins, G. O. (1994); Horton, C. (2003). Mindfulness-based yoga reduces stress, hostility, mood disturbance, substance use and relapse among the general population and incarcerated populations alike. Participating fathers build parental resilience as documented in four evaluation scales. Since 2009, more than 300 participating fathers in the Chelan County Regional Justice Center, the community, and, more recently, a local Center for Alcohol & Drug Treatment are showing signs of making change from the inside out. Partners include local jail and community corrections officers, the local library, Center for Alcohol & Drug Treatment, Department of Social and Health Services, Northwest Justice Project, Social Service Agencies, the County Program Office, and Washington State University. Come learn more about evaluation documenting the program’s impact, lessons learned, and tips for how to implement a similar program near your home.

Donna Fryman
Fleming County Cooperative Extension Service
University of Kentucky

Gwen O'Cull
EFNEP Assistant
Fleming County Cooperative Extension Service

Barbara Campbell
SNAP-Ed Program Assistant
FlemingCounty Cooperative extension Service

The Cooperative Extension Service conducts an after school program called the Healthy Divas to help adolescent females improve their self-esteem and health behaviors. Students are selected based on greatest need by their teachers. Criteria include students that do not regularly participate in after school activities due to lack of resources.

These students are often described as “at risk” due to this lack of activity or interests outside a limited scope. These students meet weekly with an average participation of 15 at each school. Weekly sessions include a health component, exercise component and nutrition component. Guest speakers present on various topics as well as the extension service staff. Topics include female issues, the importance of the HPV vaccine, substance abuse and smoking, plus skin and hair care, and body image. Students also participate in service learning projects to promote healthy behaviors during the school semester.

Students are given a questionnaire at the beginning of the sessions concerning their beliefs, attitudes and current actions at that time about issues related to the upcoming topics. At the conclusion of the program, a follow up questionnaire was administered to the students. This questionnaire was developed by UK Specialists. Questionnaires are tabulated to see if any knowledge and skills had been gained such as an increase in physical activity, better nutritional choices and attitudes toward smoking and substance abuse. The questionnaire attempts to measure changes in self-esteem and ability to resist at-risk behavior.
The success of this program is due to the involvement of agents, Extension Program Assistants, Extension Specialists and the County School System.

This program is funded through the Extension Service budget. The Board of Education provided the space and additional support through the guidance counselors’ offices and the Family Resource Centers.

Other counties in the state have replicated this program with success.

Panelists:
Josh Freeman, MD
University of Kansas School of Medicine.

Art Kaufman, M.D.
School of Medicine, University of New Mexico

Sonja Koukel, Ph.D.
New Mexico State University

Deborah Murray, Ed.D.
University of Kentucky

Carolina Nkouaga, MA
School of Medicine University of New Mexico

Roger Rennekamp, Ph.D.
Oregon State University

This presentation will increase knowledge of the Affordable Care Act and its policies

The Affordable Care Act and its policies created the Primary Care Extension Program through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to provide support and assistance to primary care providers to educate providers about preventive medicine, health promotion, chronic disease management, mental and behavioral health services (including substance abuse prevention and treatment services), and evidence-based and evidence-informed therapies and techniques, in order to enable providers to incorporate such matters into their practice and to improve community health by working with community-based health connectors, referred to by the Act as Health Extension Agents. Cooperative Extension and Academic Medical Centers in New Mexico, Oregon, Kansas and Kentucky are collaborating in one of three AHRQ pilots to build a win-win partnership.

Panelists will discuss what is going on in their states with different models of health extension and their work on developing a national toolkit for primary care extension.

Mary Wissmann, MS, RD, LD
University of Missouri Extension

Linda Rellergert, MS
University of Missouri Extension

For many low-income St. Louis residents, buying groceries in a food desert – a neighborhood with limited access to affordable and nutritious food – is a challenging chore. Supermarkets can be miles away from home and without access to a car; residents often rely on fast food, gas stations, or corner stores for daily meals. Corner stores are located throughout urban neighborhoods, but most lack fresh fruits and vegetables, nutritious snack options, and healthy beverages. Many city residents are surrounded by high-priced processed foods loaded with fat and sugar, which contributes to the growing obesity epidemic and numerous health disparities. The St. Louis Healthy Corner Store Project works to add healthy options at small corner stores and markets. The project engages local store owners, community residents, University of Missouri Extension, City of St. Louis Department of Health and Department of Public Safety, and the St. Louis Development Corporation.

In addition to adding healthy options to corner stores, this project involves a significant nutrition education component. In-store education includes point-of-sale prompts highlighting healthy options. Store owners are educated on food safety, optimal storage, and shelf stability of more perishable items including fresh fruits and vegetables. In-store educational events and promotions encourage customers to purchase newly stocked healthy items. Nutrition education for the community includes SNAP-Ed classes, diabetes education and healthy corner store tours. Project success is measured by assessing healthy food inventory at the stores and fruit and vegetable intake of residents who participate in nutrition education classes.

The development of a resource guide for store owners and a toolkit for neighborhood leaders enables other communities with comparable access issues to implement a similar project. While access to healthy food is typically regarded as an urban issue, replication of this project in small town markets in rural areas is also highly likely.

Alexandra Grenci
Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Hunterdon County
Department of Family and Community Health Sciences
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

Michelle Brill
Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Mercer County
Rutgers Cooperative Extension
Family & Community Health Sciences Educator

Sherri Cirignano - Warren County
Karen Ensle - Union County
Luanne J. Hughes - Gloucester County
Joanne Kinsey - Atlantic and Ocean Counties
Daryl Minch - Somerset County

Chair: Kathleen Morgan
Rutgers Cooperative Extension

The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 required all school districts participating in federally funded child nutrition programs to adopt and implement a school wellness policy by the 2006 school year. Lack of funding, resources, and guidance are some barriers cited by schools to full implementation of these policies.

In September 2010, the Department of Family and Community Health Sciences (FCHS) of Rutgers Cooperative Extension, in partnership with the NJ Department of Agriculture, launched Grow Healthy, a Team Nutrition school wellness initiative. Funded through a USDA Team Nutrition grant, this 2-year pilot project addresses several of these barriers and supports the objectives of Healthy People 2020 and the National Prevention Strategy.

Using a collaborative team approach, Grow Healthy brings together partners including RCE FCHS faculty/staff, Master Gardeners, NJ Department of Agriculture, volunteer parents (wellness champions), school administrators, teachers, school nurses, foodservice staff, and parent organizations.

Specifically Grow Healthy aims to promote healthy eating and physical activity within the elementary school environment by:
•Preparing school foodservice professionals to meet new school meals standards,
increase Farm to School opportunities, and achieve a minimum bronze level status in the HealthierUS School Challenge
•Improving students’ nutrition knowledge and eating behaviors through fun, interactive classroom and garden-based lessons
•Increasing physical activity during the school day using fitness bursts and pedometer step challenges
•Strengthening school wellness policies and fostering effective school wellness councils
•Engaging parents in school wellness initiatives, and reinforcing the importance of modeling healthy lifestyles at home

Program evaluation includes pre/post surveys to assess changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors as well as program satisfaction. Best practices will be shared among other NJ schools and stakeholders to encourage program replication. Through successful partnerships and shared resources, Grow Healthy has sparked improvements in the school wellness environment.

Beverage Break & Exhibits

5 Concurrent Sessions

Molly Brown
Ohio State University

Liz Smith
Ohio State University Extension

Prescription drug abuse is an escalating public health problem with dire consequences. In the past month, seven million Americans have abused prescription painkillers, sedatives, or stimulants. As a result, unintentional drug overdoses, the majority of which are due to prescription drugs, are now the second leading cause of accidental death in the US and in 16 states, it is the leading cause of accidental death.

Because this troubling phenomenon is partly fueled by inaccurate perceptions about the safety and legality of using prescription drugs for non-medical purposes, there is an urgent need to educate the public with accurate, unbiased, and research-based information.

To fulfill this need in Ohio, an innovative partnership between Ohio State University (OSU) Extension and OSU’s College of Pharmacy was formed. With funding from the Cardinal Health Foundation and OSU Cares, the one-year project coupled OSU’s College of Pharmacy faculty with Extension Educators from each of Ohio’s nine Extension Education and Research Areas (EERAs) in order to: 1) offer training in the use of prescription drug abuse educational resources; 2) support the Educators as they trained other Extension personnel in this material; and, 3) assist all trained Extension personnel as they disseminated the information in their base communities and collected data regarding knowledge gains and audience reach.

The partnership was a great success, reaching almost 2,000 Ohio citizens in 35 counties. Further, audiences indicated very high satisfaction with the programs and a strong interest in sharing the information as well as engaging in safe medication practices.

In this presentation, we will outline the program’s structure, highlight the crucial elements of the partnership, and share program findings. We will also demonstrate how attendees can replicate this partnership and program in their own community, as well as provide them with access to all of our prevention educational resources.

Ellen Schuster
University of Missouri

Strap yourself in for this forward-thinking presentation about how Extension educators need to adapt programming – face-to-face and online – now and in the near future. Our society is rapidly becoming a mobile-first society. This is driving much of how we learn in the 21st century. Technology tools that are currently being used in K-12 and higher education will change how our Extension participants prefer to learn now and in the near future.

Demographics driving these changes will be shared and will address audiences such as young learners, school-age learners, young adults and older adults. The role and use of Learning 2.0 tools such as Facebook, open courseware, YouTube, QR codes, text messaging and gaming will be discussed. The impact of tablets, e-readers and mobile devices on learning styles will also be addressed. This presentation includes opportunities for participants to think about how they might use new tools with their audiences along with real-world examples of how emerging technologies are being implemented in Extension health programs.

Participants will identify how they can keep abreast of changes in the technology arena that will impact how learners will want to learn. Participants will leave with resources to help them continue to explore Learning 2.0 tools after the session including a Facebook page that the presenter authors to explore the place where nutrition and technology meet.

Margaret Farrell
Office of Partnership and Dissemination Initiatives
Office of Communications and Education
National Cancer Institute

Alissa Gallagher
E. Peyton Purcell
Madeline La Porta
Cynthia Vinson
Michael Sanchez
Natalie Zeigler
Candace D. Maynard
Theresa Devine
National Cancer Institute
Bethesda, MD, USA.

Disseminating and implementing evidence-based interventions require an active role beyond static web 1.0 resources. Researchers, community practitioners, and government partnerships must develop innovative ways to address the pressing issue of translating research into practice. The National Cancer Institute (NCI)’s Research-to-Reality (R2R) community of practice is an important aspect of the ongoing national dialogue about how practitioners and researchers can work together to move "programs that work" into the communities where they are needed most.

Since its launch in March 2010, the R2R site (researchtoreality.cancer.gov) has convened and engaged researchers and cancer control practitioners in an ongoing dialogue around identifying, adapting and implementing research-tested interventions and evidence-based programs and policies into practice.

R2R leverages a variety of applications in its work to develop a community of practice around this essential work. In order to engage researchers and cancer control practitioners, the NCI began and sustains a series of monthly “cyber-seminars” designed to highlight real world programs and initiate discussions between researchers and practitioners. This was an essential first step toward creating a community of practice.

Through ongoing discussions, featured content and partner highlights, R2R convenes stakeholders at the local, state, tribal, jurisdictional and national levels and encourages them to share their considerable knowledge and experience in addressing the burden of cancer.

As of February 2012, there are more than 800 registered members of the R2R community. More than 800 researchers and practitioners register for the monthly cyber-seminars and the site hosts more than 9.500 page views and 8,000 site visits on an average month. The level of engagement on the site, measured by time spent on the site, questions submitted via the cyber-seminars and discussions initiated and followed has continued to grow at a steady pace.

This presentation will outline work and findings to date of R2R’s ability to build the capacity of the public health workforce to reduce the gap between research and practice.

Lisa Barlage
Ohio State University Extension

Michelle Treber
Ohio State University Extension

People are constantly checking and using technology. Providing research based timely information and programs are needed, as many websites are lacking reliability. Can wellness or weight loss programs achieve their desired results by using only technology contacts?

The presenters will share their research and program results from on-line wellness challenges that were offered by email, with reinforcement from Facebook and a Wordpress Blog. The Challenges follow the format of twice weekly wellness messages sent by email, mini messages posted on Facebook, and support pieces posted to a Blog. Challenge participants are also encouraged to use a tracking log for personal progress on exercise, weight loss or maintenance, and various health messages – such as reducing soda consumption. Zoomerang was used for pre and post Challenge evaluation. Results of exit surveys showed that 95% of participants learned new information, 88% lost or maintained their weight, and 99% of participants would recommend participating in another on-line Extension Wellness Challenge.

The Challenges can be offered with minimal financial investment other than staff time. This program was developed by Extension, with community partners such as hospitals, wellness coalitions, YMCA’s, Health Departments, and other community contacts serving as partners in promotion. The Educators who wrote the on-line messages utilized nutrition, health and fitness information from USDA, eXtension, Snap-Ed, and Extension colleagues from other universities and other research based sources. Community employers in the rural area where the program began are now promoting the Challenges with their staff as encouraged wellness activities to improve employee health.

With less Extension staff available for programming, this method of presenting health information can be used to easily reach a large number of busy adults with research based nutrition, fitness, wellness, weight-loss, and motivational information.

Presenters will share tips to help others who may be interested in using this educational method.

Nicole Peritore, MS
University of Kentucky
Health Education through Extension Leadership Office

Sylvia Montgomery, MS
USDA - National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Kelly Webber, Ph.D.
University of Kentucky
Department of Nutrition and Food Science

Cynthia Reeves, Ph.D.
USDA, National Institue of Food and Agriculture

Deborah Murray, Ed.D.
University of Kentucky
Health Education through Extension Leadership

The obesity epidemic continues to be at the forefront of health concerns and finding an approach that addresses obesity from individuals through sustainable community change can be challenging. Developing partnerships at a national level to impact behavior change at the community level is a critical component to reversing the current obesity trend.

America On The Move® (AOM) is a national program working to help individuals and communities across the country make positive changes to improve health by providing an interactive, unified, and community supported program that increases physical activity, gives nutritional guidance, and promotes sustainable, healthy lifestyle behaviors from the individual to the community setting.

For program accountability and evaluation, an AOM database is available to extension specialists and county agents, educators, and others working in extension-based programming in the states supporting the partnership. The University of Kentucky (KY) has been able to show improvements in physical activity, at the family level, through the use of the AOM program.

Families on the Move utilized the AOM materials and adapted the information into 6 newsletters that went out to participants on a weekly basis during the program. In the fall of 2009, a total of 305 families, including 435 adults and 366 children, participated in KY’s AOM program. Fifteen percent of participants increased their weekly steps by at least one mile or 2000 steps. Many of the places that families chose to walk were in the neighborhood or the local school area. .

Kentucky is using the data collected from the AOM database to improve the built environment in communities where access to areas for safe physical activity is scarce. It is an expectation that the AOM Program will continue to provide communities with an ability to monitor and evaluate their physical activity levels.

This is an opportunity to take a short break and transition from one session to the next. No food will be served during this short break.

5 Concurrent Sessions

Dr. Frederick Kimemia
Health Systems Partners

Leah Wambui
Hope Community VCT

Purpose
A comprehensive community based strategy of implementing health and social programs is an effective approach to achieving programmatic success. Partnerships within several programs and initiatives are key to achieving high level of sustainability. This partnership in implanting a comprehensive reproductive training for religious leaders assures a holistic approach in addressing issues of community concern and touching on maternal and child survival.

Intervention/Response/practice
The partnership has developed a key course for religious leaders within the local churches network that seeks to bridge the gap between Knowledge and practice to the urban population and provide linkages with the public and mission health facilities in Nairobi slums.

Catherine LePrevost
Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology
NC State University

Julia Storm
Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology
NC State University

The Pesticides and Farmworker Health Toolkit is a comprehensive educational resource for Latino farmworkers, presenting crop-specific pesticide safety and health information in highly visual and engaging ways to meet the current educational needs of the target population. The materials highlight pesticide safety, hazard communication, exposure prevention, and health promotion messages for the most commonly used pesticides in 11 crops.

The Toolkit consists of training flipcharts containing discussion guides for trainers, crop-specific pesticide information handouts for farmworkers, and hands-on activities to assess farmworker knowledge and skills. The US Environmental Protection Agency has approved the Toolkit for worker training as required by the Worker Protection Standard.

Educational materials, which are available in English and Spanish, have been produced for the following crops: apples, bell peppers, blueberries, Christmas trees, cucumbers, grapes, landscape/turf, strawberries, sweetpototatoes, tobacco, and tomatoes.

Farmworker end-users were involved in development and revision of images and lesson concepts for prototype educational resources through multiple focused small group discussions and follow-up interviews. During field testing with experienced outreach workers and farmworkers, performance-based assessments of farmworker learning, observations, and interviews with trainers allowed for evaluation of Toolkit effectiveness and usability. In this train-the-trainer workshop, we will provide an overview of the Toolkit materials and the development process that involved both trainers and farmworkers.

We will demonstrate training techniques using the Toolkit flipchart and handouts and engage participants in the Toolkit’s hands-on activities. Participants will work in small groups to practice delivering the Toolkit training.

By the end of the workshop, participants should be able to identify the most significant pesticide hazards in farmworkers’ working environments; recognize the signs and symptoms of pesticide illness and injury; use all of the Toolkit features, including the flipchart, handout, jug-labeling and symptom charade activities, and evaluation tools; and deliver a Toolkit training that engages farmworkers in discussion.

Stephanie Grutzmacher
University of Maryland
School of Public Health

Jessica DiBari
University of Maryland
School of Public Health

School-based interventions that include parents and children have a greater impact than those targeting children alone. In order to reach the parents of children participating in school-based nutrition education, Maryland Food Supplement Nutrition Education (FSNE) partnered with the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health and eight elementary schools in Maryland to develop and administer Text2BHealthy, an innovative text message program for use in low-income schools. This program leverages the success of text-based advertising tools to complement the direct nutrition education that FSNE provides to elementary school children by sending targeted messages to parents.

Text2BHealthy participants opt themselves into the program and can withdraw at any time. Only individuals with unlimited texting plans are encouraged to participate so that participants do not incur charges. Once enrolled, parents are sent 2-3 text messages per week for 4 months. The text messages are unique to each school and contain information that is timely, targeted to the school and surrounding community, and provide actionable nudges that encourage behavior change. Messages either inform participants about nutrition or physical activity events in their community (e.g. “Blueberries on sale at Safeway supermarket this week. 2 pints for $3.99”) or inform parents about nutritious options or physical activities offered at their child’s school (e.g. “This week is MSA testing week at Barclay Elementary. Make sure your child eats breakfast. A healthy start to the day will help them do well in school”).

The proposed workshop will describe the Text2BHealthy program (including participant recruitment, message design, and program evaluation), provide information about the web-based platform that we use to send the text messages, and explain the challenges in using a text message program with a low-income audience and how we addressed these challenges. This workshop will include an interactive demonstration of the text message technology.

Dee Jepsen
The Ohio State University

Amy Beaudreault
The Ohio State University

To address the at-risk population of rural youth, Ohio State University Extension (OSUE) initiated a statewide farm safety day camp program, partnering with other state sponsors. The program completed a 10-year anniversary and evaluation data from the 79 camp sessions held within that timeframe (N = 15,440; response rate 79.4%) were analyzed. Objectives of the evaluation were to determine youth perceptions of their experience as well as determine if camp sessions accurately targeted high injury-causing agents. Overall, 75.0% of campers were satisfied with the program; 76.0% reported they learned from their participation; and 71.2% agreed the information was relevant and useful. Popular topics taught at the day camps were consistent with the most prevalent on-farm injury hazards affecting youth populations including: livestock safety, ATV safety, lawn and garden safety, tractor and machinery safety, electrical safety, and water safety.

Elizabeth Shephard
UF/IFAS/Brevard County Extension

Get Active is an event to encourage kids and their families to become more active in an effort to fight childhood obesity. This festival-style event was held to raise awareness about the importance of good nutrition and physical activity in maintaining wellness. In addition, the program was able to bring awareness to research based information and where this information can be found in the community as it relates to nutrition and health. During this day-long event the educational vendors all had learning games/activities for families as well as educational hand-outs.

Vendors included, safe kids, the health department, the Extension Service, Florida Institute of Technology, Health First, Brevard healthcare forum, early learning coalition, American Heart Association and YMCA. There were field activities for participants that included obstacle courses, soccer, golf, skate boarding, rock climbing and basketball. There were demonstrations by recreational groups such as cheerleading, dance groups, aerobics, marching bands and martial arts.

Educational presentations included doctor panels, think your drink, making healthy snacks, choosing healthy foods at school, creating an active lifestyle in Brevard County and the food pyramid. This event involved many partners within the community allowing all health and activity related groups to collaborate on a program. In the two years of the program there were over 2000 participants.

Out of the 81 surveys returned:
75% of participants learned about new resources in the community.
57% have utilized at least one of the services.
42% of the participants reported including a family exercise activity at least 5 times a week.
41% reported decreasing screen time daily 1-5 hours a day.
42% reported consuming healthier beverages.
43% reported eating dinner together at least 5 times a week.

This is an opportunity to take a short break and transition from one session to the next. No food will be served during this short break.

Lunch with Priester People Awards

Health Literacy Speaker
Cindy Brach,
Senior Health Policy Researcher at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) US Department of Health and Human Services

Closing Comments —Patsy Ezell, Co-Chair
Invitation to Priester 2013

Adjourn

Optional Visits to:
Government Agencies
Professional Associations
Congressional Delegations

Notes:
Attendees make appointments prior the Conference--
Earliest appointment time suggested: 2:45
Attendees may stay over to enjoy the Washington D.C. area

Safe Travel Home