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In Partnership With:
September 2024
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Spotlight
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- A new Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) report analyzed how insufficient funding has left the nation’s public health system without the necessary resources to meet the public health challenges of the 21st century. The report, The Impact of Chronic Underfunding on America’s Public Health System 2024: Trends, Risks, and Recommendations, highlights how the country’s rising rates of chronic disease and its insufficient response to the COVID-19 public health emergency were due in part to decades of underinvestment in public heath infrastructure and its workforce. A further concern is that the health security advancements made when policymakers increased public health funding due to the COVID-19 public health emergency are now at risk as this funding ends. This annual report examines federal, state, and local public health funding trends and recommends investments and policy actions to protect the nation's health and economic security, promote health, address disparities, and reduce health care spending.
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- The federal interagency National Integrated Heat Health Information System released a National Heat Strategy for 2024-2030. The strategy aims to promote proactive coordination related to heat planning, response, and resilience. The federal departments and agencies involved in developing this strategy acknowledge the impact of heat on the health and well-being of humans, animals, and ecosystems, as well as associated economic and societal consequences. Roughly 1,220 people are killed by extreme heat in the U.S. every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), making heat the nation’s leading weather-related killer.
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched a new national campaign to inform the public about common respiratory viruses and available vaccines. The campaign, Risk Less. Do More, aims to increase awareness of vaccines that reduce serious illness from influenza (flu), COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in high-risk populations and to limit the spread of these viruses among all Americans. The goals of the campaign are to motivate higher uptake of flu, COVID-19, and RSV vaccines during the 2024–2025 season, reducing the public health burden of respiratory viruses for individuals, families, communities, and the nation. Additionally, the campaign will increase public confidence in flu, COVID-19, and RSV vaccines; cultivate vaccine literacy; and enhance awareness of vaccine accessibility, especially within communities at increased risk. For more information, visit RiskLessDoMore.hhs.gov.
- HHS has released division-specific language access plans. This effort by nearly all HHS operating and staff divisions exemplifies the Department’s commitment towards ensuring people with limited English proficiency and people with disabilities have greater access to the life-saving services that it provides. This effort builds upon last year’s Department-wide language access plan release.
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- The CDC recently released the Community Violence Prevention Resource for Action: A Compilation of the Best Available Evidence for Youth and Young Adults. This prevention resource outlines seven strategies to prevent community violence to ensure everyone can live in safe, healthy, and thriving communities. This resource is an update to the Youth Violence Prevention Resource for Action released in 2016. It includes updated evidence for preventing violence in youth (ages 10-24) and adds examples for preventing violence in young adults (ages 25-34). The strategies and approaches described in this prevention resource are supported by the best available evidence and can be a critical tool for communities in their violence prevention efforts.
- CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health released a Back-to-School Toolkit aimed at supporting schools and empowering students. Topics covered include mental health, school connectedness, family connectedness, family involvement, local wellness policies, school meals, and physical activity, among others.
- CDC published a study in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Review (MMWR) which examined health changes among U.S. caregivers from a pre-pandemic period (2015-2016) to more recent years (2021-2022). The study analyzed Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data from 35 states and Puerto Rico to compare changes in the prevalence of 19 health indicators between caregivers and non-caregivers over time. The study reveals concerning increases in mental distress, depression, obesity, and chronic physical conditions among caregivers in recent years. The findings also confirm that caregivers continue to have worse health than non-caregivers in 13 of the 19 health measures analyzed.
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SAMHSA published a toolkit to promote National Recovery Month. The resource highlights what SAMHSA is doing to support people in recovery and how to share this information with your audiences. The materials are designed to be shared with a range of audiences and across media channels; they are downloadable and shareable, and some of the material is customizable.
- TFAH hosted a virtual Congressional briefing and national webinar honoring the 25th anniversary of the CDC Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) program. REACH aims to improve health, prevent chronic diseases, and reduce health disparities among racial and ethnic populations with the highest risk, or burden of chronic disease. Since 1999, the program has empowered communities to develop and share effective solutions, fostering a healthier future for all. A recording and other materials from the webinar are available here.
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Funding and Award Opportunities
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- The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced over $65 million in grant awards to help tackle mental health and substance use. This includes $27.5 million through the Strategic Prevention Framework – Partnerships for Success (SPF-PFS) program to help Tribes, state and local governments, and colleges and universities to develop and deliver substance use prevention services. Additional awards will support children with unmet behavioral health needs, increase access to behavioral health care for people who are (or are at risk of) becoming unhoused, and enhance the behavioral health workforce by supporting substance use disorder (SUD) training for graduate-level health care professionals.
- SAMHSA has announced the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) Cooperative Agreements for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Planning Grants. The purpose of this program is to support states in developing and implementing certification systems for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs), establish Prospective Payment Systems for Medicaid reimbursable behavioral health services, and prepare an application to participate in a four-year CCBHC Demonstration program. Application deadline: September 12, 2024.
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Reminder: The Environmental Protection Agency has announced a new NOFO, the Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants Program. The program, using funds from the Inflation Reduction Act, will fund climate justice activities to benefit disadvantaged communities through projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience, and build community capacity to address environmental and climate justice challenges. These place-based investments will be focused on community-driven initiatives that are responsive to community and stakeholder input. Application deadline: November 21, 2024.
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Open Comment Opportunities and Requests for Information (RFIs)
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- Reminder: The Administration for Community Living recently released a new framework for supporting older adults across the country – Aging in the United States: A Strategic Framework for a National Plan on Aging. Developed by leaders and experts from 16 federal agencies and departments working together through the Interagency Coordinating Committee on Healthy Aging and Age-Friendly Communities, this Strategic Framework describes the opportunities and challenges created by the aging of the U.S. population and defines goals and objectives for addressing critical aging issues. It includes a roadmap for developing a national plan on aging that will enhance service delivery and support the development of partnerships within and across sectors. Organizations and individuals are encouraged to carefully review the Strategic Framework and provide input by September 15, 2024.
- Reminder: The public is invited to submit comments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee as it prepares to develop the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The current edition of the Dietary Guidelines (2020-2025) provides guidance on the lifespan, from birth to older adulthood, including pregnancy and lactation. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030 will continue to provide food-based dietary guidance across the lifespan to help meet nutrient needs, promote health, and reduce the risk of chronic disease. The deadline to submit comments October 1, 2024.
- The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) published draft guidance outlining new, voluntary targets for sodium reduction in foods. This draft guidance serves as Phase II of FDA’s stepwise sodium reduction efforts and builds on the sodium reduction goals issued in 2021, now referred to as Phase I. Phase II contains three-year sodium reduction targets for 163 food categories that are commercially processed and packaged or prepared in food service establishments such as restaurants. The deadline to submit comments on the draft guidance is November 14, 2024.
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If your organization submits comments, please share a copy with GIH (info@gih.org) so we can track and compile input from health funders.
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- September 11-15, 2024: Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference (Washington, D.C.)
- September 17-19, 2024: Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Leadership Conference (Washington, D.C.)
- October 15 – 18, 2024: Grantmakers In Aging Annual Conference (Detroit, MI)
- October 27-30, 2024: American Public Health Association Annual Meeting & Expo: Rebuilding Trust in Public Health and Science (Minneapolis, MN)
- November 11-13, 2024: GIH Health Policy Exchange (Washington, DC)
- April 29 – May 7, 2025: Preparedness Summit (San Antonio, TX)
- July 13-18, 2025: 2025 Digital Media and Developing Minds International Scientific Congress (Washington, DC)
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