May 18, 2021
The Community Health Corner
According to the CDC, community health uses science-based approaches for the greatest health benefit to the greatest number of people by addressing social, economic and structural drivers that impact health. Changes in policies, systems and environments, settings are among the most effective ways to tackle big health issues. Being healthy is not just about individual choices, it’s also about the conditions that influence everyone’s health.
May is Mental Health Month, so with a focus on behavioral health the following are community health tools that you can use for Grand Challenge for Health work:
REGISTER NOW: May 27; 2-3 p.m. (CDT) African American Farmers: Stress Issues and Solutions. All farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural workers face stress related to their occupations. However, African American farmers have additional sources of stress not faced by other agricultural producers. Register at NC Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Center/AgrAbility. Contact AgrAbility at 800-825-4264 or email agrability@agrability.org if you have questions.
USE NOW: Kansas Prevention Coalition Directory, interactive state map for local substance use, suicide and gambling addiction prevention efforts. The annual conference of the Kansas Prevention Collaborative is October 21-22 in Wichita.
ACTION NOW: On May 11 the Kansas State Board of Education reviewed the results of the school-based 2021 Kansas CTC (Communities That Care) survey of Kansas youth (see 3:34-4:24 time period of YouTube video).
The annual survey revealed that of the 71,000 students surveyed in 2021:
• 22,000 expressed feelings of depression
• 10,000 seriously considered killing themselves
• 6,700 made a plan to kill themselves
• 2,600 tried to kill themselves
• 291 11-year-old kids reported they have tried to kill themselves. Theoretically, that’s equivalent to 1 in each Kansas school district.
Board Chair Jim Porter called the results “disturbing.” Contact Elaine Johannes for more information and to access the presentation slides which are on the KSRE Stress and Resilience Team channel.
For more information contact Elaine Johannes, ejohanne@ksu.edu.