New e-communiqué seeks to forge stronger public health network in New Mexico
Thursday, January 28, 2021; Silver City, NM: The Center for Health Innovation’s (CHI) newest e-communication series apprises New Mexico’s public and community health professionals of the most up-to-date research and resources to help in their community endeavors.
The twice-monthly e-communiqué offers Timely Information and Pointers in a bit-sized format (TIPbits) to be easily-read at a glance. Specifically-targeted for public health professionals, TIPbits is sent directly to inboxes everywhere at anyone’s request for no cost.
Compiled by health communications professional, Christine Hollis, MPH, MPS, TIPbits offers links to the most relevant research and resources emerging from the field to strengthen health, community development, health policy, and public health communication efforts.
“TIPbits provides current summaries or information on skill-building trainings, funding sources, reports of innovative programs, cutting-edge research and ‘lessons learned’ elsewhere,” Hollis said.
“Those in the field often face either a lack or overload of information to keep up-dated. The idea behind TIPbits is to build local capacity, so easily-digestible news briefs are shared from credible sources and intended specifically to help public health professionals learn about, access and/or adopt new information to get their work done,” added Hollis.
As CHI’s newest e-communication approach, TIPbits resulted from a Rural Health Network Development grant, received in 2018 by CHI and totaling $99,344, from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
The grant supported integrated rural health care networks that combine the functions and assets of the entities participating in the network to address the health care needs of the targeted rural communities. For example, CHI, as New Mexico’s designated Public Health Institute, provides skilled communication staff and a high-functioning network advisory board in order to address the health care needs of the rural communities.
“One result from the HRSA grant was that our leadership team developed six strategic goals, including implementing a strategic communication plan to better strengthen public health in New Mexico,” said CHI’s Executive Director, Susan Wilger.
Wilger sees results from the grant work and network-building on a daily basis. “I think it’s allowing the major public health entities in our state to partner more effectively, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic has meant public health practitioners are hard pressed to keep up-to-date with rapidly changing research and knowledge in the field.”
“Public health practitioners are now expected to facilitate and engage in multi-sector community stakeholder collaborations to improve population health. These group efforts can better address upstream, underlying social determinants of health, such as structural racism and inequities, economic security, affordable housing, access to healthy food, and transportation,” Hollis said of the expanded role of public health.
TIPbits offers resources on the aforementioned public health topics and more. “The e-communiqué was designed to help weave our state’s public health organizations into a stronger and unified network,” said CHI communications specialist Kendra Milligan. She solidified the leadership team’s vision for a public health network into a functional reality.
The e-communiqué is sent now to a core network of community health practitioners throughout the state. These include county and tribal health council coordinators and Health Promotion Team members of the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH). Though tailored for public health professionals, anyone can register to receive TIPbits.
“We hope this network will grow, expand and diversify, as core network members share and connect with other stakeholders, learn from each other, build on-going relationships, and come together in more coordinated ways to solve community health problems or move change-related policies forward,” Hollis said of the network’s future.
Wilger, too, envisions the growing potential of the e-communiqué. “It will share useful information among New Mexico’s community players, with people sending information requests and the network responding with successes from their own public health efforts.”
To receive TIPbits via email, contact Kendra Milligan at (575) 597-0035 or kmilligan@chi-phi.org or to subscribe: bit.ly/393NZmL.
