"The community health worker is under utilized, and yet can be the best glue across that continuum."

In this episode, Ysabel Duron and Dr. Manali Patel discuss the importance of community health workers (CHWs) in cancer care delivery. They talk about the unique capacity of CHW to identify the actual gaps and actual needs of patients to support and work in tandem with doctors.

This episode references the article titled "⁠A Community-Engaged Process for Adapting a Proven Community Health Worker Model to Integrate Precision Cancer Care Delivery for Low-income Latinx Adults With Cancer⁠" by Emily H. Wood, MPH, Maria Leach, MSW, Gerardo Villicana, BA, Lisa Goldman Rosas, PhD, MPH, Ysabel Duron, BS, Dale G. O’Brien, MD, Zachary Koontz, MD, and Manali I. Patel, MD, MPH, MS.

"The way that people talk about immigrants in the news media affects those internalized stereotypes and, also, real fears that construct or limit somebody's mobility."

In this episode, Dr. Mario Alberto Viveros Espinoza-Kulick and Dr. Alex Espinoza-Kulick explore how the news media impacts the content and context of health access and decision-making among Latinx immigrant and Indigenous communities. They remind us that we need more immigration policies that center the health, well being, and dignity of migrant communities. Their research emphasizes the interconnectedness of immigration policy and public health, urging policymakers to evaluate immigration laws based on their impact on the health of communities, especially immigrant and Indigenous peoples.

This episode references the article titled "Immigration Policy is Health Policy: News Media Effects on Health Disparities for Latinx Immigrant and Indigenous Groups" by Mario Alberto V. Espinoza-Kulick, MA, PhD, Alex Espinoza-Kulick, MA, PhD, Elisa González and Jodene Takahashi. For more content from this week's guests, please check out “We Need Health for All”: Mental Health and Barriers to Care among Latinxs in California and Connecticut, Movement Pandemic Adaptability: Health Inequity and Advocacy among Latinx Immigrant and Indigenous Peoples, Mi Gente, Nuestra Salud: Protocol for a People’s Movement for Health Ownership | Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action, and Radio Indigena 94.1 FM by Mixteco Indígena Community Organizing Project.

In this episode, Dr. Melissa Valerio-Shewmaker is in conversation with Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez on her commentary that encourages us to look for upstream solutions and utilize promotoras. Dr. Ramirez also situates her approach in her own upbringing and to help us understand the barriers and disadvantages to health, as well as the need for more Latinos with advanced degrees for representation and culturally relevant care.

This episode references the article titled "Milestones and Miles to Go in Latino Health Promotion" by Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez. For more ways to celebrate Latino Heritage Month and learn more, check out the HPP en Español collection of articles, Salud America!, and The Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio. They hope that researchers, academics, health promoters, doctors, students and community leaders register for the next Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos conference on Feb. 21-23, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas.

In this episode, Cynthia Begay is in conversation with Dr. Diane McEachern and Lauren White about their research in rural northwest Alaska Native villages on the quantities, types, sources, and frequency of support that Alaska Native youth and young adults had. They discuss the impact of colonization on education, and they reaffirm the existing support that occurs in Native communities. Furthermore, they offer ways that research can be more nuanced for Native communities to perhaps better measure support for males, use traditional milestone markers instead of age, pivot away from Western terms like informal and formal supports, and focus on involving the whole community.

This episode references the article titled “What Kinds of Support are Alaska Native Youth and Young Adults Reporting? An Examination of Types, Quantities, Sources, and Frequencies of Support” by Kelly L. Markowski, PhD, Lauren White, MPH, Sela R. Harcey, MS, Tara Schmidt, MPH, Diane McEachern, PhD, LCSW, MSW, Patrick Habecker, PhD, and Lisa Wexler, PhD, MSW.

If you'd like to contact them about the paper or their research interests, Dr. Diane McEachern teaches rural human services and social work and their doctoral research studied the teaching of social work to Indigenous adults. She can be reached at [email protected]. Lauren White is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan studying Social Work and Psychology. She can be reached at [email protected] or on twitter @laurenalaine.

In this episode, Dr. Sara Baumann and Dr. Jessica Burke help us reflect back on the last three years of COVID. They talk about their mental health research, the adaptations that their project underwent due to COVID restrictions, and the visual art gallery that emerged. They juxtaposed a few moments from films, which can be watched at ⁠http://www.collaborativefilmmaking.com/⁠. They remind us that one of the benefits of collaborative filmmaking is the ability to use the films for advocacy or awareness raising purposes.

This episode references the article titled "⁠Creating Community During COVID-19: A Virtual Art Gallery to Address Social Isolation During a Pandemic⁠" by Sara E. Baumann, PhD, MPH and Jessica G. Burke, PhD, MHS. It also mentions "⁠Visualizing Mental Health Through the Lens of Pittsburgh Youth: A Collaborative Filmmaking Study During COVID-19⁠" by Sara E. Baumann, PhD, Brayden N. Kameg, DNP, Christopher T. Wiltrout, MPH, Deborah Murdoch, MPH, Lindsay Pelcher, MPH, and Jessica G. Burke, PhD and "⁠Exploring Community Art and Its Role in Promoting Health, Social Cohesion, and Community Resilience in the Aftermath of the 2015 Nepal Earthquake⁠" by Sara E. Baumann, PhD, MPH, Monica M. Merante, BPhil, Marie-Ange Sylvain-Holmgren, BA, and Jessica G. Burke, PhD, MHS.

Use these links to check out the visual art gallery:

"We want to have a dialogue about developing the capacity to grapple with political dysfunction. We need to be able to win political battles in order to save lives."

In this episode, Dr. Marcus Cheatham, Dr. Heidi Hancher-Rauch, Dr. Jodi Brookins-Fisher, Dr. Alexis Blavos, and Dr. Amy Thompson help us explore how the current political landscape has led to a poor national response to the pandemic. They remind us that public health professionals have a role to play as advocates, and they help us understand the matrix used in their commentary space.

This episode references the article titled "Politics Spread COVID: Developing a Public Health Response" by Marcus Cheatham, PhD, Heidi Hancher-Rauch, PhD, Jodi Brookins-Fisher, PhD, Alexis Blavos, PhD, and Amy Thompson, PhD.

"If you ask me, the most important thing is: who is at the table and who's not, right? Because –who is at the table and who's not?– determines what's on the agenda and the values that are underlying whatever's going on. So the most important structural intervention that you could make is to involve people who have a strong interest in whatever the proceeding is or whatever the effort's going to be, to be at the decision making table."

In this episode, Arden Castle is in conversation with Dr. Camara Jones and Dr. Keon Gilbert about race, racism, and antiracism. They dissect these definitions, identify patterns in the US and UK, encourage making institutional walls porous, and discuss intergenerational bridging. Dr. Jones also offers her 4 Habits of Mind (the 4 BC's) for social justice warriors: be courageous, be curious, be collective, and build community. For a deeper dive on this topic, watch Dr. Jones's TedTalk and check out HPP's What Is Antiracism in Health Promotion Practice? special issue in Volume 24 Issue 1, January 2023.

"It's really important to have people do the work, the slow work often, of walking around a neighborhood, in this case, and really looking at what's actually on the ground, literally, like, where are the cigarette butts, where are things happening, what does the safety look like?"

In this episode, Dr. Maya Vijayaraghavan and Dr. Margaret Handley discuss clean air policies that limit indoor smoking in subsidized housing. They break down their multi-method approach which allows for a comprehensive approach to policy questions that expands past individual behaviors and recognizes the policy, environmental, and social context of behavior change and the need to intervene at each of these levels to facilitate behavior change. They remind us that ground truthing can help unpack and develop non-coercive incentive-based programs and policies with buy in from residents and staff.

This episode references the article titled "Multi-Level Influences of Smoke-Free Policies in Subsidized Housing: Applying the COM-B Model and Neighborhood Assessments to Inform Smoke-Free Policies" by Maya Vijayaraghavan, MD, MAS, Marlena Hartman-Filson, MSW, Priyanka Vyas, PhD, Toshali Katyal, BA, Tram Nguyen, BA, and Margaret A. Handley, PhD, MPH.

In this episode, Dr. Terry O’Toole, René Lavinghouze, and Dr. LaNita Wright discuss the 5 Priority Actions that states and communities can take to prevent serious chronic diseases, which are designed to improve the environments in which children, adults, and families can access healthy choices or live in places where it's easier to be healthy. They also explained the five program infrastructure themes that allowed recipients to pivot and remain nimble when COVID-19 placed pressure on the environment and implementation context. The CDC’s funding enabled many of the first-time writers to participate in writing workshops to demystify publishing, connect with subject matter experts, remove the barriers to writing resources, and battle imposter syndrome.

Check out the Reducing Chronic Disease through Physical Activity and Nutrition: Public Health Practice in the Field Supplement for free articles on the 5 Priority Actions.