Arthritis Foundation Washington/Alaska Chapter
Self-Help Course Instructor Training
Seattle, September 14 & 15
The Arthritis Self-Help Course (
ASHC) for instructors prepares you to teach arthritis or fibromyalgia self-help courses. The Arthritis Foundation is offering grants to the first 20 applicants. The grant covers the cost of the courses and instruction manuals. Continuing Education Units will be awarded on completion.With this certification you will be qualified to teach the
ASHC in your community. The ASHC gives people with arthritis or fibromyalgia the knowledge, confidence and skills needed to take a more active role in their own care. Components of the ASHC are: the effects and use of medications, nutrition, patient/physician communication, types of arthritis, and appropriate use of injured joints. Interactive components include: designing individual physical activity, relaxation, and pain management programs. An evaluation of the course done by Kate Lorig showed a 20 percent reduction in pain and 40 percent reduction in physician visits, as well as increased self-efficacy.If you are interested in receiving this instructor training, complete the attached application. Don't delay. There are only 20 grants available. If you have additional questions about the training contact
Johanna Lindsay at 206-547-2707 ext. 100, jlindsay@arthritis.org.
Teach a Feature
The
Community Projects section of the H.E.R.E. web site is a growing database of interesting and innovative health education interventions from towns and cities across the state. Projects range from simple to comprehensive and low-cost to fully funded. It’s a quick way to see the kinds of approaches colleagues have taken to address the same health education and health promotion issues you may be facing.Take a look at the short project descriptions and contact information—you can search the database in a number of ways. If you know about a worthy project that isn’t listed,
tell us or fill out the on-line form.It’s a great way to share your successes and get recognition for your hard work.
Since we have so many new readers, we’d like to remind you about the two ways to search the database. They take you from broad to specific:
The
Searching by
key words gives you the most specific results. Each project can be assigned up to 50 key words from the list of about 300 words. Scroll through the list of key words to zero in on the precise subject. The number in parentheses tells you how many projects have been assigned that key word. This is also a quick way to find projects by county.
Mentor of the Month
Theresa Cross
Theresa Cross is a senior health educator for Southwest Washington Health District (SWWHD). She earned a B.S. in Community Health Education from Oregon State University. While at OSU she completed academic requirements for the American Dietetic Association. She did her dietetic internship at Oregon Health Sciences University (she's a Registered Dietitian). Theresa earned a M.S. in Community Health Education from Portland State University.
While Theresa was
completing her B.S. she worked in long-term care managing dietary
services. She started her career with SWWHD as a nutritionist for the WIC department. When the Public Health Improvement
Plan came out, the Health District formed a multidisciplinary Urgent Public
Health Needs Team (UPHN). On this team she wore two hats—nutritionist and
health educator. The UPHN Team became what is now the Health Promotion Unit.
Today she works full time in health education. Over the last few years she has
transitioned from teen tobacco prevention to doing more with tobacco media. She
also works in staff development. She provides training for both the Health
Promotion Unit and District staff. Theresa's goal is for all Health District
staff to "think like health educators" in their work.
Theresa believes health education helps people live healthier lives. She feels everyone desires to be the best they can be, and that it's a basic human trait. "Our challenge is to find what the 'best' is for a particular group and find ways to motivate and support them to strive for health. It could look different with each group," Theresa says. "The text books teach the science behind what we do, but it can look entirely different in practice. Our work is not done in a vacuum. We have community partners, human nature and very real politics each affecting our plans." Building relationships with other disciplines and resisting the urge to see health educators as the only profession uniquely qualified to help others make health behavior changes are challenges Theresa sees for the future. "Sociology, social psychology, marketing, and communications can offer us a more comprehensive approach to our work as health behavior change agents," she said. She feels it behooves us to learn all we can from every area. It will only help us be better at what we do. This time of the year it is hard to keep Theresa in the office. She loves to
garden, especially flowers. She is still trying to figure out a way to combine
her passion for growing things with the health educator part of her. She also
enjoys reading, movies, walking, hiking and bike riding. Her expertise includes
planning health education programs and troubleshooting. She'd be happy to share
her experiences in SWWHD's Teens Against Tobacco Use Program and how it evolved.
Theresa can be reached by email
What's New
Click on these helpful forms
Do you have a community project to add?
Submission Form -- Community Projects
Do you have health education materials to add?
Submission Form -- Materials Exchange
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WA and receive this newsletter monthly?
Add Yourself to the H.E.R.E. Rolodex
H.E.R.E.inWA Team