skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Community Health-Workers to Address Childhood Asthma in CT

play audio
Play

Tuesday, October 5, 2021   

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Asthma is one of the major reasons why children miss school in Connecticut, and a new grant program will support improving asthma rates, by using community health workers for outreach.

The $150,000 grant from the Connecticut Health Foundation will go to Charter Oak, a federally qualified health center in Hartford. Community health workers typically come from the region or population they serve, and can help bridge divides between patients and the health-care system.

Tiffany Donelson, president and CEO of the Connecticut Health Foundation, said research shows the workers are critical to addressing public health issues, like asthma.

"A community health worker is able to go into the home and understand, are there ways to mitigate some of the environmental factors within the home?" Donelson explained. "They're able to work with the schools and to understand what are the right protocols for children."

Donelson pointed out Charter Oak's community health-worker program will be up and running this month. She noted it follows a program in the Seattle area, which, after 20 years of research, developed policies that reduced asthma rates in children and adults through home visits.

In Connecticut, racial disparities are part of the childhood asthma picture, with Black children five times more likely to be hospitalized than white children.

Donelson argued disparities make the community health workers even more important to the population they are serving.

"What we need to do now is fully integrate community health workers into the health-care system," Donelson urged. "And that we figure out ways that we fund community health workers, because they're doing work that we have not seen other parts of the system able to do."

The foundation will fund the Charter Oak community health-worker program for two to three years. It's a collaboration with Commonwealth Medicine, a division of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, which previously researched community health-worker interventions in Connecticut.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Many factors affect a customer's bill amount, including energy usage, weather, and the number of days in a billing period, according to Arizona Public Service. (Jason Yoder/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

Social Issues

play sound

A mix of policy updates and staffing boosts has helped to put wage theft enforcement on the radar in Minnesota, and officials leading the efforts are …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021