Category: blog

Head off heat-related illness

Posted on by amberpadilla

The past few weeks of major heat risk have led to increases in hospitalizations for heat-related illness. VDH’s Heat-Related Illness Dashboard shows that there can be serious visits to the emergency room or to urgent care for people dealing with heat-related illness.

It’s important to know which heat-related symptoms should lead you to hydrate or seek air conditioning, and which should prompt you to get immediate medical care. If we all know the differences between heat exhaustion and heat stroke, we can work together to take care of our friends, families, and neighbors during extreme heat.

On the Radio: La importancia de tener vacunas antes de entrar a la escuela 

Posted on by amberpadilla

On the Radio: “La importancia de tener vacunas antes de entrar a la escuela”

by Kiran Sabharwal

RHHD’s own Maria Maldonado and Adranae Mena are radio celebrities! Maria, who serves as a Henrico Community Health Worker and a host of Radio Poder 1380, was joined by Sr. Richmond CHW Adranae live on air a few weeks ago. This amazing equipo sat down with Radio Poder 1380, a Spanish-language station broadcasting to families across the Richmond area, to share information about another important component to school-readiness, required school immunizations.

Kids catching up on their required childhood vaccines and all students entering 7th and 12th grade are required to receive immunizations to keep them and their classmates safe!

Wondering how to get your kiddos ready for school this fall? Maria and Adranae shared some helpful tips: 

  • No esperemos a ùltimo dìa. Don’t wait until the end of the summer! Make an appointment with your primary care physician or call RHHD to make an appointment now.
  • Puede llamar 804-205-3501. To schedule an appointment at an RHHD clinic, call 804-205-3501 or find more information about upcoming immunization events at rhhd.gov/childhoodvax. You can also find appointments closer to you with our pharmacy partners at Hope and Bremo—just visit rhhd.gov/hope-appointment or rhhd.gov/bremo-appointment to schedule convenient options.
  • Son gratis. RHHD is offering immunizations required for entry into Richmond and Henrico County Schools without charge to all RPS and HCPS students across the region.

With summer nearly halfway over, it’s time to schedule an appointment now for your student to receive all required immunizations. Get your student ready for another healthy school year by making an appointment today!
Maria and Adranae broadcasting live from the studio!

Become a de-tick-tive 

Posted on by amberpadilla

Sherlock Holmes and Nancy Drew don’t always go looking for cases—sometimes, the cases find them. And no one likes finding ticks, but some days, you forget your insect repellant, your long pants, or your regular tick check, and then there you are, an amateur acarologist.

If you find a tick on yourself, your kiddos, or on a pet, the case isn’t closed! You can still take steps to stay healthy and protect others:

  • Remove the tick safely and completely. Tweezers are best for this fiddly job, and you’ll want to make sure to grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible.
  • Save and identify your tick. If you’ve been binging CSI or true crime to stay out of the heat this summer, put those skills to use! Use our handy graphic below to figure out what kind of tick is responsible for your bite. That info will be useful if you start to feel sick later.
  • Ready to join Team Tick? Join forces with other tick inspectors and send ticks removed from humans to VDH. The Virginia Tick Survey helps us learn more about the kinds of ticks biting humans and where different tick types hang out.

How will YOU prepare?

Posted on by amberpadilla

Summer is no vacation for RHHD’s Emergency Preparedness and Response (EP & R) team. During the summer, these experts are huddling up with colleagues in agencies across the commonwealth to review shelter plans and check on equipment like CHEMPACKs. They also run tabletop exercises to rehearse responses to unexpected events.

EP & R Coordinator Ed Porner explains that RRHD is part of the team of Emergency Support Functions that leap to action in Richmond and Henrico during an emergency. These organizations work together if there’s an immediate nearby event—weather-related or otherwise—that requires evacuation. Ed says the recent South Hill fertilizer warehouse fire is exactly the type of event these teams train to respond to quickly and safely. The organizations also plan for mass dispensing events that would get vaccines or other supplies to residents quickly.

Organizations responsible for emergency response run a series of drills and exercises throughout the summer to rehearse their planning. CDC Public Health Associates Program Fellow Amanda Tedesco says these drills can be a tabletop exercise, where everyone gathers to talk through a plan; a functional exercise, where experts practice using specific tools and equipment; or a full-scale exercise. Full-scale exercises this year will focus on dispensing vaccines so that the skills responders learned during mass COVID-19 vaccination stay up to date. With the support of RHHD’s capable crew of Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) volunteers, emergency response organizations will administer more than 500 flu immunizations in the coming months, helping to keep our communities healthy and our emergency response skills sharp.

Emergency response experts in Richmond and Henrico know their work will impact Virginians beyond these two communities. VCU’s Siegel Center is listed as a statewide shelter in the event that coastal Virginians need to evacuate from a hurricane, for example. “Siegel can accommodate anywhere from 800-1000 people if needed, but the logistics and the set up for that, as you can imagine, is tremendously big. So there’s a lot of planning and exercising that has to happen with that,” Ed explains.

For Ed and Amanda, part of this work involves training the brain to think ahead about the kinds of events we don’t always like to consider. “There’s a lot going on under the surface that people don’t see until they need to care about it,” Ed says. “They need to think about what they need to be successful in an emergency. We tend not to have a lot of those conversations until it becomes an impact. But the person who has low mobility who is going to need to get out of the house, those are the kinds of things we all need to prepare for.”

All of us are important partners in the work Ed and Amanda do, and they encourage us all to take simple steps to get ready for emergencies. “I try to share the urgency,” Amanda explains. “Climate change is affecting vector borne diseases, the strength of hurricanes, extreme heat. We have to be more prepared, and people can see those impacts.”

Ed and Amanda share some strategies for building your own emergency preparedness plans:

  • Think of emergency response as a muscle. Amanda grew up in a military family—she was taught from a young age to locate a good meeting point at baseball games and other big events in case her family was ever separated. “You can build off practices like that,” she says, and scale up to larger preparedness strategies.
  • Identify the questions that will be most important to you. Ed says that “The enormous lists of preparedness get kind of gargantuan, but there are lots of things you can do to extend your resilience.” Preparedness questions most relevant to you will depend on where you live, who you live with, and what things you’ll need most in case of an emergency. As your list of questions grow, Ed suggests “just nibbling at it little by little” so it doesn’t feel too overwhelming.
  • Take a small step today to boost your emergency preparedness. Two actions that feel especially important to Amanda are keeping some cash on hand in case outages impact credit card usage and having a well-stocked emergency kit in her car. You can buy or build your own kit with a few simple items—and there are also suggestions for planning on a budget!

With people like Ed and Amanda focused on the big picture of our communities’ emergency response, we are in safe hands. We can all take steps to make their jobs easier and our loved ones safer during a crisis! And if you want to get even more involved, learn how to connect, train, and volunteer with the Medical Reserve Corps. Ed says, “we couldn’t do half of what we do without them!”

Stay tuned here for more preparedness tips throughout the summer.

Grill Safe

Posted on by amberpadilla
by Kiran Sabharwal

From Fourth of July bashes to pool parties to backyard cookouts, July is full of opportunities to fire up the grill and gather around good food. This National Grilling Month, we sat down with RHHD Environmental Health Supervisor and Fourth-Of-July-Cookout-Expert Kirsten Dobson. Kirsten is one of the many folks at RHHD who inspects area restaurants. Between life on the job and at home with her family, she’s invested in making sure people stay safe when they eat.

Kirsten says it’s important to prepare and store food properly to eliminate pathogens and bacteria in raw proteins or refrigerated items, especially in hot temperatures outside. When you grill or eat outside, take it step-by-step:

First, cook all your non-proteins on the grill. Kirsten’s fun grilling rec? Try tossing an avocado on the grill alongside your corn or peppers!

Second, grill the burgers, chicken, and hot dogs. Cooking meats second prevents any contamination of vegetables and non-proteins.

Third, switch utensils as you “go from raw to ready-to-eat” and if you’re switching between proteins. Using the same tongs when you move raw meat to the grill and when you flip an almost cooked burger could contaminate the food. You can also clean utensils with a bleach and water solution.

Fourth, get your meat thermometer up and running! A probe thermometer that measures temperature internally will give you the most accurate reading. Different proteins need to be cooked to different temperatures in order to be safe.

Once you’ve successfully pulled your proteins off the grill, follow the Four Hour Rule with all food. Be sure to keep hot foods warm in a crockpot and refrigerated foods cold with ice. Any dishes left out for four hours should be thrown away to keep guests safe.

At your outdoor celebrations this season, be a food-safe host. Check out CDC’s Food Safety site for more summer grilling hints and guidelines to keep all your food party-ready!

Swim Safe

Posted on by amberpadilla

One solution for the heat? Take to the water! RHHD’s teams are promoting health by land and by…well, river, in our case.

The Environmental Health team inspects marinas and pools to make sure that the water we want to jump into all summer long is as safe as possible. Environmental Technical Specialist Jay LeReche has been conducting marina inspections for more than ten years at locations including Rocketts Landing,  Richmond Yacht Basin, and Kingsland Marina.

As someone who spends a lot of time on the James himself, Jay says that clean waterways boost tourism and keep residents active and connected to nature. We all have a part to play in keeping the James—and other water sources—safe:

  • I boat! Jay says each of Richmond and Henrico’s marinas have carefully inspected pump-out facilities that help boat owners dispose of sewage safely. You can also take steps to reduce waste that occurs during refueling or cleaning your boat—let’s keep paint chips and oils out of our river!
  • I fish! Did you know that the Department of Wildlife Resources has special recycling stations for getting rid of old fishing lines? Keep an eye out for these instead of throwing old line into the trash, which can impact wildlife and swimmers.
  • I prefer the pool! RHHD primarily inspects hotel pools, but Jay says anyone managing a pool can practice water safety by testing the water quality daily for pH levels and chlorine.

Whatever your preferred method of spending time near the water, you can benefit from more water safety tips at Healthy Swimming RVA.

Sweat safe

Posted on by amberpadilla

In Richmond, we’re gearing up for a weekend of moderate heat risk. On days with moderate heat risk, it’s okay for most people to spend some time outside. It might be a good day to avoid staying outside for long periods of time. If you’re more sensitive to heat because of your age or a health condition, you might plan more time inside.

How do we know how to plan? This year, we’ve got CDC’s HeatRisk dashboard, which helps you look at the week ahead and figure out how heat might impact your day-to-day life.

As we move into summer holidays, you can check the HeatRisk dashboard just like you would check the forecast for rain when making plans. On major or extreme heat risk days, you can reschedule outdoor events or spend more of your time in an air-conditioned public space, like a museum or a shopping center. There is also cooling refuge in locations across the region:

  • Richmond Department of Social Services Marshall Plaza: 900 E. Marshall St., Suite 160, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
  • Richmond Department of Social Services – Southside Plaza: 4100 Hull Street Road, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
  • Richmond Public Libraries (check individual locations for hours)
  • Henrico County Public Libraries (check individual locations for hours)
  • Henrico County Recreation facilities (call individual locations for hours)

GRTC bus service is zero-fare this summer and all GRTC buses are air-conditioned.

Extreme heat is a serious challenge that requires creative solutions of all sizes to keep our communities safe. We can start by staying informed and making the impacts of extreme heat visible thanks to the HeatRisk dashboard!

Tell your energy bill to chill out!   

Posted on by amberpadilla

Extreme heat doesn’t just cause serious heat-related illnesses. It can also be a pain for your monthly budget. The National Energy Association Directors Association estimates that this will be the most expensive summer yet for families trying to keep their homes cool.

Starting on June 15, Virginia’s Department of Social Services (DSS) will help eligible residents with cooling equipment purchases, repair, and/or bill payment. You can apply for state assistance by creating an account at CommonHelp online, by calling 855-635-4370, or visiting your local Department of Social Services. To learn more about the program and who is eligible, visit the DSS website.

When the temperature rises above 95 degrees, electric fans won’t actually cool the body, so AC is a necessity. In addition to exploring energy bill assistance, try out these strategies for reducing your utility bill during a hot summer:

  • Turn off lights and unplug equipment when you’re not using it. Not only will these habits help your wallet, they’ll keep your home a little cooler!
  • Close doors to unused rooms.
  • Cover windows with shades and curtains.
  • If your home doesn’t have AC, make plans to get out of the heat at air-conditioned community spaces! These might include Richmond or Henrico Public libraries, free museums like the Virginia Museum for Fine Arts, shopping centers, or community spaces like RHHD’s resource centers.

Stay tuned for more advice on beating the heat. And have questions about health and heat you want to see addressed in future newsletter editions? You can email RHHDpr@vdh.virginia.gov.

Liberation, equal access, and community health: RHHD celebrates Juneteenth 

Posted on by amberpadilla

Wednesday, June 19, marks the fourth federal observance of Juneteenth. Even before President Biden declared Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021, the day was a meaningful opportunity to reflect on a national history of enslavement and to celebrate emancipation—the news of which reached enslaved people in Texas in 1865, almost two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Health and well-being are important parts of modern Juneteenth celebrations. One advocate for a federal holiday was the Reverend Ronald V. Myers; in addition to his work in Washington, he was a practicing family doctor who worked to prevent infant mortality and chronic illness in rural Mississippi. This year at RHHD, we honor Dr. Myers’s legacy as our staff continues to link public health with freedom, equality, and justice. Here are a few of their reflections and calls to action:

Lorraine Wright, Violence Prevention Manager 

Access is one of the most important components of public health. If enslaved Texans had learned about the declaration of their freedom in 1863, Union soldiers would not have needed to make the trip to Galveston almost two-and-a half-years later. It’s not just that enslaved people didn’t know they were free—there was intentional withholding of information in order to maintain an exploited labor force of more than 250,000 enslaved people.

On Juneteenth, I encourage us to dig deeper and ask some important questions: How often are we the keepers of information, not because we are deserving of it, or even earned it, but just because we happened to have access to it? How often do we fail to share that information with others—intentionally or otherwise—even if we know it could support someone else on their road to liberation? Let us strive to learn Juneteenth’s critical lessons about access. My call to action is always going to be the same: you’ve got to leverage your sphere of influence. Together, we can create pathways to liberating resources like safe and permanent housing, addiction support, culturally relevant and engaging education, and empowering health information. That’s what it means to be public health!

Charelle Carr, Henrico Community Health Worker (CHW) 

Juneteenth reminds us that people spent years not knowing they were free. Knowledge and information help you make choices about where you’re headed next, and that’s a freedom. I tie that idea into public health a lot. There are resources and services out here that people don’t know about that could really help them, like VDH’s car seat program, WIC support for expectant parents and little ones, or immunization appointments. When I was a young, single mother, I wanted my son (who is now a recent college graduate!) to have all the opportunities to make good decisions and be the best. So I know it can be hard to know where to find things that will enhance your child’s education on health.

Now it’s my job to bring these resources into communities! CHWs are the link between our different programs. We are in the community, we know the resources, or if we don’t have them yet, we know how to find them.

You can come meet the Henrico CHWs at our table during the Dorey Park Juneteenth celebration on Saturday, June 15. It’s going to be a great, family-oriented event. Being together and celebrating our African American communities reminds us that our ancestors had liberation—and we take that and move it forward. Stop by, say hello, and take a look at the resources we have to share!

Shaleetta Drawbaugh, Health Equity Fund Program Officer 

Juneteenth is a monumental event that asks us to hold in tension celebration, struggle, and hope. It is a reminder that we are not free until everyone is free!

Systemic racism, discrimination, and historical disenfranchisement continue to present threats to public health. I work with the Health Equity Fund (HEF), which invests in community led-projects that are filling gaps to improve health in communities experiencing deep disparities and the longstanding impacts of racism.

The HEF is accepting funding applications through June 23. Any community leader, program, or collaborative should feel empowered to apply! If you’re a small, grassroots, or fledgling organization—especially if you’ve experienced rejection—we hope you’re inspired to never give up. Be courageous and submit a HEF application to access critical, gap-filling funds. Funding can sustain your transformative work to eliminate health disparities. We want to partner with organizations and people undertaking transformative work to eliminate health disparities. Your efforts are seen and they matter!

Jasmine Carmichael, Community Health Assessment Coordinator  

To me, Juneteenth is a day to celebrate progress, change, and justice. I take this day to reflect on how we have flourished and prospered since the effective end of slavery. We have accomplished so much despite many societal challenges, and it’s really important to celebrate that!

In public health, Juneteenth presents an opportunity to hear the voices of those who have been impacted by systemic injustice and to consider the health disparities caused by those injustices. I view the Community Health Assessment (CHA) survey as one small step toward eradicating injustice. You can and should fill it out to express what you think should be improved in our communities. We take that feedback and create improvement plans to address those issues. That small step—rooted in careful listening—steers us toward confronting the bigger challenges in our communities.

“Show your welcome”: Richmond’s Multicultural Festival was June 8! 

Posted on by amberpadilla

Richmond’s Multicultural Festival: Imagine 2024 took place on Saturday, June 8. The annual event was cohosted by Richmond’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Engagement and ReEstablish Richmond. Each year, it celebrates both National Immigrant Heritage Month and World Refugee Day.  

“The Multicultural Festival is always an opportunity for newcomers and long-term residents to gather together in the same place to exchange information and culture,” says Kate Ayers, Executive Director of ReEstablish Richmond. In some cases, it is a newcomer’s first introduction to essential services in the community, including our local health departments and healthcare safety net services.” 

RHHD Community Health Worker Senior Elham Khairi says that the Multicultural Festival is one of the biggest events her team attends every year. Community Health Workers (CHWs) build relationships with residents to help with resource navigation and referrals, and they are always looking for opportunities to connect with new people. Elham staffed RHHD’s information table along with fellow CHW Maria Maldonado.  

The festival is especially important to Maria, who was volunteering there even before joining the CHW team. At the festival and beyond, Maria lives a life of community service and outreach. She worked in community organizing in Los Angeles before coming to Virginia. Here, she’s done important community outreach work through her church, as a radio program host for Radio Poder, and in her time on the janitorial staff for the Virginia State Police. Elham says that she hired Maria because she has the qualities of a true CHW: “A great community health worker is the person who is already a community health worker even without the title. They’re a trusted person who already connects and serves in the community, and they’re at the frontline of any issue that comes up.”  

Maria’s past experience with community health work and the Multicultural Festival made this year’s event a success!  

 

There were great, multilingual resources and support for newcomers.  

Organizations providing health information, legal services, community networking, and other kinds of support set up information tables for the first half of the day. Maria brought information about RHHD clinics, staying cool during extreme summer heat, and car seat classes. She also showed people how to schedule appointments for childhood vaccines or find primary care at places like CrossOver Healthcare Ministry. 

Maria works with many people who have busy work schedules or limited transportation. Some need healthcare support in a language other than English. As someone who arrived in the United States from El Salvador when she was 15, she knows that, for newcomers, these barriers can make it hard to find, schedule, and keep health appointments. Working through these barriers is her favorite part of her job: “I love seeing people get involved in their health and get connected to healthcare.” 

For Maria, healthcare includes important vaccinations for children and mental health resources, which she says are especially important for people navigating a big transition from life in one country to another. “Sometimes, people think these things will cost a lot of money, but there are programs that can help people for free,” Maria says. “I tell people what to bring so that clinics can evaluate your economic status and go forward from there.” 

 

The festival let us all learn from each other and create more welcoming communities.  

One thing Maria notices is that people don’t always understand the differences between immigrant, migrant, parolee, refugee, and asylum-seeking populations, who enter the United States in different ways and have to work through different policies and requirements once they arrive. “Even as part of an immigrant community, I get confused with the different words, too!” she says. “It’s important to know that people arrive in different ways but that they are all here. We need more shared information.”  

Elham says her team is intentional about partnering with events that create healing and wellness through community connections—the festival’s focus on multiculturalism does just that: “The goal is to break isolation and to change the narrative, especially negative narratives about immigrants and migrants. When we meet and get know each other, then we can create connection, change narratives, and create space for peaceful co-existence.” Elham also notes that the name is more inclusive of other cultures, including indigenous communities and Black populations in the U.S. Learn about other traditions, foods, and communities in this fun and inclusive way is “care in action,” she says.  

 

It was fun!  

“If you don’t have a budget to travel this summer, this was a way to visit the many, many, many providers from multiple countries and take a trip around the world!” Elham says. She and Maria met new people, said hello to some pets, danced to good music, and tried lots of delicious food.  

 

The festival was just the start. 

Elham and Maria hope that the event is only the beginning of meaningful relationships between CHWs, festival residents, and our broader communities. Here are some ways to stay connected:  

  • RHHD runs a newcomer clinic for people going through the resettlement process. 
  • If you want to volunteer and support newcomers learning English, navigating transportation, or working toward employment opportunities, Maria and Elham recommend ReEstablish Richmond as a place to start.  
  • If your organization hosts events and would like a RHHD team member to attend with health information, please fill out this request form!   

Our team is already counting down the days to next year’s festival—hope to see you there!