Welcome to NASBHC's 2011 Annual Convention Blog

Hello and welcome to NASBHC's 2011 Annual Convention Blog. We can't wait to see everyone in Chicago this June - at the Convention and online.

There are a lot of exciting things happening at the Convention this year that you won't want to miss (click here to check out our preliminary program).

We'll be streaming all three of the plenary sessions live again this year along with two workshops to allow those who are unable to attend keep up with what's happening in Chicago.

Similar to last year, we'll show a live Twitter feed in the Convention hall. This allows everyone, including those who aren't present, to participate and interact with each other.

We are fortunate enough to have five social media fellows attending the Convention this year. They'll have distinct badges that will make them easy to spot. Throughout the Convention you will find them at NASBHC's booth and attending workshops. They will be happy to answer quesitons about Twitter and Facebook.

NASBHC is proud to have 16 Youth Ambassadors at the Convention this year participating in our Youth Track. These college and high school students will be travelling to the Convention from five different states and will work on projects related to their interests in media, advocacy, or leadership.

Keep checking this blog for updates, blogs about the different workshops and plenaries, and introductions to our staff, social media fellows, and youth ambassadors! And if you haven't registered yet, be sure to visit www.nasbhc.org/convention now. Keep in mind the early bird cut-off for registration is May 20th. Don't miss the discounted rate!

Watch NASBHC's 2011 Convention video:

By Kyle Taylor
Outreach and Engagement Intern

Advocacy Day Video (Part 1 of 4)

Thanks to Iman Shervington for her great work filming and editing this film!

Update on the SBHC Regulations: $200 million in Funding

Those of you unable to join us on the south side of the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia, for our opening plenary with Jim Macrae missed an important update on the forthcoming regulations that will help SBHCs nationwide continue and expand the care that they are providing forchildren and adolescents.

For some background, it’s important that you understand that Section 4101(a) the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act appropriated $200 million over the next four years for construction and equipment for new and existing SBHCs.  We’re very grateful to our Congressional champions for making that happen, since the $200 million will make a big difference in the lives of youth everywhere.  I attended two terrific Advocacy Day meetings earlier in the day with a few high school seniors and recent graduates from high schools in Maine, and they made the case of what can happen with that funding – and what else can be accomplished if Congress appropriates an additional $50 million for the operation of SBHCs as authorized under section 4101(b).

Jim Macrae is the Associate Administrator for Primary Health Care in the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA).  As the head of the Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC), he is in charge of drafting the regulations that will specify how the $200 million appropriation for construction and equipment.  He told a packed ballroom that the regulations are in the draft stage, and will be published in roughly one month.

As soon as the regulations are available we’ll convene phone calls to alert the field of the availability of the funds, and some assistance on how to structure the request for your center’s share of these competitive grants.  Mr. Macrae also said that BPHC plans on holding its own phone calls with interested stakeholders to answer questions that remain after the regulations are published.

So stay tuned to our website.  And become a member of NASBHC to become the first to know when the regulations are published.

Josh Rovner, Director of Policy and Advocacy

Suicide Postvention in Schools: An Innovative Toolkit for Managing Crises

Few things distress a school community more than a student’s death by suicide, yet school teachers, administrators and staff often don’t have what they need to respond to a suicide crisis. Knowing the right things to do after a student’s suicide is essential for helping students and staff cope with the loss and prevent further tragedies.

I’ll be doing a poster presentation (“Suicide Postvention in Schools: An Innovative Online Toolkit for Managing Crises”) that discusses the importance of suicide prevention and postvention* in schools, and provides an overview of a forthcoming online toolkit for responding to a suicide crisis. I got involved with developing the toolkit as part of my role as a Senior Prevention Specialist at the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), a national technical assistance resource center.

The project is a collaborative effort between SPRC, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and seeks to meet a distinct need in the field for concise, easy to access information to help schools respond after a suicide. I’ve had a longstanding passion for school-based work, so the toolkit was a good fit with my interests and skills. 

I’m excited to be presenting on this topic at NASBHC’s Convention and look forward to conversations about how the toolkit will benefit SBHCs, whether there are content areas that are especially relevant for your school communities, and how we might think about promoting the toolkit when it goes live in September.

*Suicide postvention refers to the provision of crisis intervention and other support following a suicide to address and alleviate the possible effects of suicide, including contagion.

Gayle Jaffe, MSW, MPH is a Senior Prevention Specialist with the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (www.sprc.org), which provides support, training, and resources to organizations and individuals at the national, tribal, state, territorial, and community levels.

Attention all Mental Health Providers!

Laura Hurwitz, Director of School Mental Health at NASBHC, invites all mental health provides to a networking session on Friday June 18th from 4:45-6:00 pm in the Manassas room, on the second level of the hotel.  Mental health providers will have an opportunity to share what they are doing in their SBHCs with their colleagues around the country as well as to learn about some of NASBHC’s school mental health work.  

If you haven’t yet rsvp’d, you can do so by emailing Laura at LHurwitz@nasbhc.org.

Introducing... NASBHC's Social Media Fellows (part 2 of 2)

Introducing…  Iman Shervington

Greetings fellow NASBHC convention attendees! I'm from a community-based non-profit in New Orleans called the Institute of Women & Ethnic Studies (IWES), and as a Social Media Fellow I'm here to impart the highlights, sights and sound(bites) back to you, as well as to those that couldn't make it this year. I have an MFA in Film Directing, and at IWES I am privileged to be able to mix my love of art and media with social justice, specifically to advocate for the health and well-being of the youth of the New Orleans metro area. 

Through our Media Advocates for Prevention (MAP) program as well as our Social marketing Technology Outreach Program (STOP), I work with youth aged 13-24 to promote HIV prevention and sexual health among their peers through youth-created media content (audio and film pieces). A major focus of both of these programs is new media, specifically the utilization of web-based technologies such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, & YouTube. At IWES, we also work with the Louisiana Public Health Initiative (LPHI) to promote School-Based Health Centers in New Orleans by serving as a liaison between the administration and the community to promote enrollment and utilization of clinic services. 

I look forward to meeting many new friends this weekend and sharing your stories through NASBHC's social media channels! Please look out for me throughout the convention if you have an interesting experience you would like to share.

Introducing… NASBHC Social Media Fellow Darby Baker

Hello everyone! My name is Darby Baker and I am from Camas Valley, Oregon. I am affiliated with Umpqua Community Health Clinic of Roseburg, Oregon. I am currently the receptionist for their School Based Health Center at Douglas High School in Winston Oregon. Umpqua Community Health Clinic is a Federally Qualified Health Center so I work in their other locations as well. Currently they operate two school based health centers and four not for profit health centers located throughout Douglas County as well as a dental clinic. We operate on mostly federal dollars that offset out expenses so that we are able to provide health care in a teen health center setting but are able to provide health and dental care to uninsured adults as well.

Social media started its impact for the 2010 NASBHC Convention many months ago. The ability to email, blog, text, facebook and twitter has made the ability to converse with other professionals much easier and many of the same network users will be able to use those tools while they attend the convention. The ability to stay in contact via Twitter and Facebook is a popular choice instead of phone calls and email. Bloggers have exploded onto the social scene and the ability to share technology and content has evolved dramatically. Having the ability to ask questions, participate in Webinars and having access to so much information from others in the same professional capacity is encouraging. Convention goers will easily be able to continue their communications long after the conference is over. 

The media that will profoundly impact the NASBHC Convention will not stop with the attendees. Even those that are unable to attend the convention will be able to access certain information through the internet. I always look forward to meeting new people and having the ability to continue these professional relationships via Twitter and Facebook. We can share ideas, concerns and even plan for the next conference thanks to the accessibility of social media and the profound effect it has on our world today.

Introducing... NASBHC's Social Media Fellows (Part 1 of 2)

Introducing… Robin Kirkpatrick, LCSW, MPH

I applied for the Social Media Fellowship because I am very interested in Social Networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs as relatively new sociocultural phenomenon. I am fascinated by the possibility these resources hold as tools for health education with teens, how adolescents utilize these venues to express themselves and interact, and how we as adult advocates can make use of these resources to connect with each other, as well as with young people, around topics that are engaging for all of us.

Good writing, a sense of humor, and a compelling circumstance, such as the NASBHC Convention, can combine to create a persuasive platform to inform and inspire interested parties.  My previous experience working in two school-based clinics, and now working as an advocate for school-based health care in my current job as the Associate Director of the California Adolescent Health Collaborative, (CAHC) provide me with a broad knowledge base from which to discuss the exciting events that are sure to unfold during the 2010 Convention.

The other element of social media that I really enjoy is the interaction; it’s always a surprise what people will respond to: what thoughts, impressions, and ideas are inspired by a post, comment, picture, link, or video.  I look forward to a engaging with a lively and provocative community of school health advocates during the convention.

Robin has worked in the field of adolescent health for the past thirteen years. Both in direct service with adolescents as a mental health provider, and in research, policy, and advocacy work on youth health, she has sought to find creative solutions to the myriad of challenges teens face.  Currently, she is the Associate Director for the California Adolescent Health Collaborative.  The California Adolescent Health Collaborative (CAHC), a project of the Public Health Institute, is a public-private statewide coalition with the goal of increasing understanding and support for adolescent health and wellness in California.  In this position, she is involved in direct research on a range of adolescent health issues as well as policy and advocacy efforts to improve health services and environments for teens throughout California.

Introducing…. Suzanne Keep MSN, RN

Social media is becoming an essential means of communication in both the work place and personal social networks. Incorporating social media into the 2010 National School Based Health Care Convention allows those who are not able to attend the conference feel as though they are a part of the conference through attendants’ blog posts, tweets and Facebook updates.  Creating a viral buzz about the convention will be vital to the convention’s success, and social media and networking can only enhance this viral buzz. I believe that if as many of the attendees as possible can be active in social media, the convention will have an unprecedented interest and following.

Suzanne is an assistant professor for the University of Detroit McAuley School of Nursing at the Grand Rapids, Michigan campus, and a PhD in Nursing student at Rutgers University. Suzanne teaches community health practicum where students are in the Grand Rapids Public Schools, working with school nurses.

Advocacy Day Starts Tomorrow

Good afternoon, everyone.

We’re putting some of the final touches on our Advocacy Day, and it’s really looking terrific.  We’ve scheduled more than 110 meetings (more are coming in even as I type), thanks to the great work of our field.  At least nineteen of those meetings are with the appropriators who are pivotal to making sure SBHCs get the resources they need to keep their doors open and continue providing care.  We have meetings with twelve offices whose members sit on the education committees – Education and Labor in the House and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in the Senate.  Everywhere we go, we’ll be making the common-sense case for why healthy students make better learners.

I hope we’ll have some blog posts as the day goes on to let you know how the rally in the morning goes and what feedback we hear from the Congressional offices in our meetings.  If you’re not coming to the convention, please be sure to contact your members to express support for school-based health care in your community.  Invite your representative to tour a clinic.  Write a letter to the editor.

But for the hundreds of you who are traveling to the Convention: I can’t wait to see you.  Bring your spirit and your passion.  Let’s make it a great day!
Josh Rovner, NASBHC Policy & Advocacy Director

NASBHC's School-Based Health Care Convention is Going Live!

NASBHC is celebrating our 15^th anniversary by taking our Convention in to the digital age.

This year, SBHC advocates who can’t attend the Convention will be able to watch a LIVE video feed of all three plenary sessions!

Plus, participants at the Convention and at home can participate by reading and writing blogs and Twitter feeds.

Check back here for more details...