Category: FP2

UW Health Sciences Library (HSL) is recruiting members for its Graduate and Professional Student Library Advisory Committee (GPS-LAC)!

Interested students should apply by October 31st!

Our mission at the Health Sciences Library (HSL) is to advance scholarship, research, education, and health care by anticipating information needs, providing essential resources, and facilitating learning for the greater health sciences community. This library is a resource for you as students, and the best way we can improve is from your feedback and collaboration. Join this online opportunity to brainstorm resources and services that serve our future health sciences professionals.

Purpose:

• Provide a collaborative space in which students have a central voice in brainstorming and play a key role in decision-making for improvements and new services
• Learn about library resources that help with your studies and research

Benefits:

• Participate in meaningful change through collaboration with fellow students and library staff
• Create a library that serves all current and future students by centering its focus on providing services and spaces that directly benefit its users
• Members receive letters and certifications of appreciation for their professional portfolios at the end of the year-long quarterly commitment (three meetings in total)

Expectations:

• Commit to 1 virtual, 60-minute meeting per quarter in Fall, Winter, and Spring
• Thoughtfully engage with the ideas discussed at the meetings and share these ideas and meeting notes with your peers
• Check email regularly for meeting notes and updates

How to Join:

• Graduate students from all six UW Health Science Schools are welcome to join! Please note that while you do not have to be in the Seattle area, our times will be announced in PST. Please let us know if you live in a different time zone so that we can give you the correct times
• No prior experience necessary!
• Please fill out our interest form to tell us a little bit about yourself and why you’re interested. We’ll respond within two weeks with more information

The Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) Region 5 is offering an opportunity for NNLM members in Region 5 to host a viewing of the 30-minute documentary, Laboring with Hope for their communities. This program is intended to improve awareness of maternal health disparities and create opportunities to share reliable health information.

Going through pregnancy and delivery should be a joyful time and a safe experience. However, for many women of color this is often not the case. Black women have higher rates of complications, and according to the CDC, are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than White women.  

Laboring with Hope is a 30-minute documentary on maternal morbidity and mortality among Black women. The film combines personal stories and expert perspectives to provide a call to action to implement, support, and uplift strategies to improve maternal health and birth outcomes. More information about Laboring with Hope, including a trailer, is available from the producer.

Laboring with Hope was produced by Six Dimensions, whose owner and CEO, Dr. Nakeitra L. Burse, presented the webinar “Storytelling as a Public Health Strategy to Address Inequities in Maternal Health Outcomes” as part of the PNC-MLA Health Equity and Diversity Speaker Series. Region 5 is offering access to Laboring with Hope through April 30, 2024 in response to interest expressed by attendees during Dr. Burse’s well-received webinar.

Submit your request to host an in-person or virtual viewing of Laboring with Hope at your library or organization.

Consider hosting a discussion after the film with your community or colleagues using the accompanying discussion guide, inviting a local expert to talk about maternal health in your community, or using the film to support a book discussion of a title from the NNLM Reading Club’s Black Maternal Health selections. There are no costs associated with this program opportunity for your organization, and all NNLM Region 5 members are welcome to submit a request to host a viewing of the film (we are not able to honor requests from NNLM members outside of Region 5). We will review your request, and send a program toolkit containing:

• a link to access and stream Laboring with Hope
• a discussion guide created by the producer
• a customizable handout with health information resources on maternal health for your community

Requests to host a viewing of the film will be accepted on an on-going basis through April 14, 2024. Access to the film is available through April 30, 2024. Region 5 members who show the film will be asked to submit a brief report on their event by April 30, 2024.

Questions? Contact the Region 5 office, nnlm@uw.edu

In comparison to urbanites, people living in rural areas have poorer health outcomes. They are more likely to die from cancer, heart disease, chronic lower respiratory disease, and stroke as well as unintentional injuries such as motor vehicle crashes and opioid overdoses. Numerous factors contribute to rural health disparities such as lack of access to medical facilities and medical specialists, less access to supermarkets, higher rates of smoking, fewer opportunities for leisure-time exercise, and higher poverty rates to name a few. Though the issue is multifactorial, resources such as the Rural Health Information Hub (RHIhub) provides evidence-based toolkits for rural communities to help address rural health inequities as well as tackle issue-specific concerns such as a lack of transportation which is a barrier to accessing healthy food and emergency health care.

UW Health Sciences Library celebrates the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a prominent leader of the civil rights movement who championed health equity. Dr. King’s activism and dedication created a more equitable health environment for Black citizens and other minorities in the U.S. Despite his invaluable contribution and the progress made over the years, health inequities for marginalized groups and disadvantaged communities persist, but there are organizations working towards closing the health disparity gap.

While the scourge of COVID-19 continues to affect the lives of people all over the world, many have turned their attention to another viral disease, monkeypox, which is circulating in several countries across the globe.

Monkeypox, a rare disease caused by the monkeypox virus, is related to the smallpox virus causing similar but less severe symptoms. It is transmitted to people through close contact with infected individuals or animals, even materials contaminated by infected individuals such as bedding. Though most common in some Central and West African countries, there have been occasional monkeypox outbreaks in other parts of the world, including the global outbreak of the virus in May of this year.

Listed below are a few resources—websites, articles, and fact sheets—on monkeypox.

The World Health Organization (WHO) designated July 28th as World Hepatitis Day.  This date was chosen to honor the birthday of Dr. Baruch Blumberg who discovered hepatitis B and is one of the developers of the first hepatitis B vaccine. The campaign for 2022 is Bringing Hepatitis Care Closer to Communities. Their goal is to eliminate hepatitis by 2030 and educating the public is an important step in helping to reach this goal. They encourage testing babies, teens, and adults for hepatitis to treat those afflicted and promote educating global communities on preventive measures for the various forms of hepatitis. Currently, there is an outbreak of acute hepatitis among children that worries global health officials because the cause is not known. While health officials are still working to discover the cause of this recent outbreak, there are steps pregnant women can take to help ensure that their babies don’t get hepatitis B, as mentioned in the WHO’s calls to action.

Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver that can be caused by medical conditions, medications, alcohol use, or viruses. Hepatitis A, B, and C are the three most common types of viral hepatitis. This disease can cause damage to the liver and in some cases is fatal.

May 7^th is National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day 

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a U.S. Department of Health & Human Services agency, created this awareness day to highlight the importance of children’s mental health to their overall development and well-being. Childhood mental health issues have increased since 2010 and pediatric health experts warn that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these issues, creating a youth mental health crisis as detailed in the U.S. Surgeon General’s Protecting Youth Mental Health advisory issued in 2021. Also this past year, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, and Children’s Hospital Association declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health advocating for governmental policy changes that support families with evidence-based interventions in healthcare, school, and community settings. Recognizing that changes are needed at every level, one of SAMHSA’s awareness day goals include supporting communities and organizations in efforts to educate the public on childhood mental health issues and offer resources for those in need.

This year’s theme is Our Planet, Our Health: Clean our Air, Water, and Food. The World Health Organization (WHO) sponsors this annual awareness day to draw attention to specific global health issues. They chose April 7^th because it marks the founding of WHO in 1948.

This year, the campaign has a multipronged focus exploring how pollution (in its many forms) and the climate crisis negatively impact the planet and human health. They urge leaders, corporations, and individuals to promote and practice healthful eating, energy conservation, and anti-pollutive habits. Acknowledging the interconnectedness of the health of our planet to human well-being, this year’s message encourages a holistic approach to health at every level—from societies, governments, and health facilities to the individuals that populate them.

UW Resources

Environmental Health in the 21st Century: From Air Pollution to Zoonotic Diseases (2018). This text provides encyclopedic entries on environmental health topics.

Cover image credit:

World Health Organization. (2022). Our Planet, Our Health. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day/2022/