Monique

Understanding and addressing the health history of a client is the best way of knowing what kind of treatment he or she needs. Digging a little deeper into family health history is even better, especially as part of National Cancer Prevention Month. Your health staff can recommend screenings and referrals based on what kind of conditions patients are genetically predisposed to.

Gathering family health histories can easily be added to any at-home or in-clinic visit. Your staff can fill in a form based on patient responses, or they can give them a worksheet to complete at home.

A container of yogurt six months past its “expiration date” might be one of the oldest things I’ve eaten. Then again, that piece of cheddar, carefully pruned of mold, I had last week might have been older. My husband will tell you with a cringe that I’m much more likely to excavate something from the back of the fridge, give it a sniff, and decide to eat it only if the smell doesn’t knock me out.

“Better By,” but Still Good

I don’t give much weight to meaningless dates. All you need to do is look at the inconsistency of these labels to know how little they mean: “Best Before,” “Sell By,” “Use By,” “EXP,” or my favorite, “Enjoy By.” These ambiguous terms are not a reliable indication of how long food will keep, but they do mean that 90 percent of consumers say they toss food because of safety concerns.

Our friends at Susan G. Komen Columbus have announced a fantastic and free breast cancer training opportunity for clinical or community-based patient navigators. If you’re in Ohio, you can apply for this blended-learning program to “increase your patient needs assessment skills and learn about resources to help support patients through the continuum of care.” Read more below, and apply by Feb. 11:

Patient Navigator Course for Laypeople and Clinical Professionals

Komen Columbus is excited to announce we are accepting applications for a free course for community-based or clinical patient navigators interested in increasing their patient needs assessment skills and learning about resources to help support patients through the continuum of care. Though this training focuses on patient navigation after an abnormal screening result, it may be appropriate to build skills for navigation to screening as well.

The deadline to apply is February 11. The course will begin March 1st, and continue for 10 weeks. Twenty-two CNE credits are available through the Oncology Nursing Society.

Helping community members manage asthma can be as easy as sharing a few key pieces of knowledge—even if you don’t have a dedicated asthma care team.

According to the American Lung Association, asthma is one of the main reasons that students miss school due to illness. Making a few changes can significantly change those statistics.

Changes that work for people with asthma or their caregivers don’t have to be about major lifestyle overhauls. They can be as simple as:

• Remove your shoes at the door
• Ventilate your home
• Clean green

These are three tips from CHWTraining’s Improving Asthma Outcomes program, which aims to instruct peer educators on guiding patients and clients to making easy changes that improve the quality of their life.

As health-based organization, you already know that motivating community members to change is tough. Make sure your CHWs, patient navigators, promontoras and other health workers are doing all they can to empowered clients and patients to live a healthier life.

The course Health Coaching and Motivational Interviewing helps you see greater results from client interactions.

This on-target course covers the essentials your staff needs to know for coaching and MI. This course defines health coaching activities, why and how it is done and how patients or clients might view self-care. It also covers stages of change, and techniques for motivational interviewing and goal-setting.

Best of all, you can enroll up to 20 people for the same low price.

Read about Health Coaching and Motivational Interviewing.