I’m proud to announce that we’ve added a new link to the standard resources included in the Resource Library of all our products. The National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD) is a great resource for those with disabilities (and their service providers) to find recreational activities that promote increased physical activity and health. One of the things that caught my eye was the 5k training programs.

Here’s the information they provide about themselves:

The National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD) is positioned to effect change in health promotion/obesity management among people with disabilities through its existing 13-year history of providing advocacy, services and programs to numerous organizations and people throughout the country. The primary focus of the Center’s approach is to collaborate with the nation’s leading health advocacy and disability organizations in linking them to the hundreds of program initiatives ongoing across the nation, and using this framework to build inclusion and integration into these existing programs. The Center is focusing on five key goal areas: (a) Developing Leadership through the formation of localInclusive Health Coalitions (IHCs) that support community health inclusion for children, adults and seniors with disabilities across community sectors (schools, fitness centers, workplaces, health care facilities, and community-at-large); (b) Providing individualizedInformation, Referral and Consultation services to people with disabilities, families, caregivers, policymakers, organizations, community members, health care practitioners and public health professionals through an expansive array of web-based materials customized to end users; (c) Promoting community and individual behavior change through a Health Communications network that channels social media between and within disability and non-disability service providers and organizations; (d) Developing a set of guidelines/criteria to promote inclusive Policies in physical activity, nutrition and lifestyle weight management and establishingPartnerships with major leaders in the disability and public health communities to ensure inclusion into various community transformation programs; and (e) Developing a comprehensiveTraining initiative that educates disability and non-disability service providers in community health inclusion. The expected results of the Center’s activities include 1) greater support for promoting inclusivepolicies, systems and environments that support the needs of people with disabilities; and 2) improved health behaviors (i.e., physical activity and nutrition) and better weight management strategies for addressing obesity in children and adults with disabilities.

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Check them out and let us know what you think!

Effective immediately all FULL SERVICE local chapters of United Resource Connection have been equipped with a widget to easily post YouTube videos in the sidebars of their webpages. It should now be easier to add and administer video blogs on your area website. Using your administrative account, log in and visit your chapter’s widget page in the Appearance section of your dashboard. Open the widget named “YouTube” and add the html address of the video you wish to display. Then, drag and drop the widget to position the video wherever you like on the sidebar. Enjoy!

 

Edited 9/29/12 to reflect changes in tiers of service.

We’ve added epilepsy health news to the rss feed available at all local chapters of United Resource Connection. Epilepsy is a condition that about 50 million people are estimated to have worldwide. If you or someone you know has epilepsy, it is a great asset to have access to the most recent national and world research news.

The epilepsy health news feed is provided by Medical News Today, and joins 18 other topics updated daily on all local chapters of United Resource Connection.

The other news feed includes the following topics: Nutrition, Mental Health, Public Health, Men’s Health, Quitting Smoking, Pharmaceutical Industry News, Women’s Health, Schizophrenia, Seniors and Aging, Medicare & Medicaid News, Depression, Health Insurance News, Hypertension, Bipolar Disorders, Veterinary News, Fitness & Obesity, Alcoholism & Addiction, and Sports Medicine.

 

On June 2nd, 2011, the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (an organization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture) announced a new graphic will replace the food pyramid.  The hope is that the new graphic, which appears at the right, is easier to understand.  Click on the plate to go to the website for more information, and/or use the .pdf links below to promote nutrition education.

Getting Started with MyPlate ? Begin here. [PDF]

A Brief History of USDA Food Guides ? For almost 100 years, USDA has been providing food guidance to American consumers. [PDF]

Selected messages ? Seven key consumer messages from the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. [PDF]

Dietary Guidelines 2010 Consumer Brochure ? Let’s Eat for the Health of It… Build a healthy plate. Cut back on foods high in solid fats, added sugars, and salt. Eat the right amount of calories for you. Be physically active your way. [PDF]

Sample menus at 2000 calorie level ? Current with the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, these menus give an example of how all of the recommendations for food group and nutrient intake can be integrated into a weekly menu. [PDF]

Recipes ? Fifteen recipes (3 from each food group) complete with basic nutritional analyses and food group amounts. [PDF]

 

The Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, an organization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was established in 1994 to improve the nutrition and well-being of Americans. Toward this goal, the Center focuses its efforts on two primary objectives:

1. Advance and promote dietary guidance for all Americans, and
2. Conduct applied research and analyses in nutrition and consumer economics.

The Center’s core projects to support its objectives are the following:

• Dietary Guidelines for Americans
• USDA Food Guidance System (MyPlate, MyPyramid, Food Guide Pyramid)
• Healthy Eating Index
• U.S. Food Plans
• Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply
• Expenditures on Children by Families

For more information on CNPP, or to get more information on these projects, please visitwww.cnpp.usda.gov.

Caring Connections is a national consumer and community engagement initiative encouraging people to:

• Learn about options for end-of-life services and care
• Implement plans to ensure wishes are honored
• Voice decisions to family, friends and healthcare providers
• Engage in personal or community efforts to improve end-of-life care

FREE RESOURCES

They provide a number of free resources on their website at CaringInfo.org, including:

• State-specific advance directives
• Easy to read publications on these and other topics:
  • Talking about end-of-life wishes
  • Supporting someone who is grieving
  • Caring for your loved ones
  • Talking to your doctor about pain or illness
  • Understanding hospice and palliative care services
  • Paying for long-term care
  • Caring for a seriously ill child

HelpLine – 800-658-8898

Knowledgeable and compassionate people to:

• Provide a compassionate ear and answer questions on end-of-life issues;
• Provide a variety of free consumer brochures, state-specific advance directives and contact information for community services.

Multilingual Line – 877-658-8896

Bi-lingual staff are available to assist callers with end-of-life care issues and send free materials in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese on a variety of end-of-life topics.

Birth certificates are required by a number of service providers to demonstrate citizenship for service eligiblity.   VitalRec.com provides a list of offices in each county of each State that provide vital records information, which is useful if you’re searching for a record of a birth, death, or marriage, that occurred outside of the county you are located.  The information includes the mailing address, fees associated, and payment forms accepted for each type of record.  They also offer an online form for ordering and payment if you have a credit card.  Please use the information they provide to call the vital records office of interest, before mailing anything, to verify that the fees and procedures provided by vitalrec.com are correct.  Some of their fee information may be outdated, so its best to check prior to sending any money.

For convenience, each local chapter of cybercasemanager has a link to the Vitalrec.com website on the Resource Links page, under the category “Identification (IDs)”.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has produced a number of .pdfs conveying the science-based facts of drug abuse and addiction.  These educational resources make great reading materials to review with clients who may be struggling with abuse and/or addiction.  The .pdfs are available in English and Spanish, and are collected into categories including “Effects of Drug Abuse”,  “Health Effects of Specific Drugs”, “Prevention and Treatment”, and “Survey Data”.  There are approximately 22 .pdfs

For convenience, each local chapter of cybercasemanager has a link to the Fact Sheets on Drug Abuse and Addiction, located in the “Addiction Tx” section of the Resource Links page.

SAMHSA (The Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, offers a substance abuse treatment facility locator on their website.

This online service allows a highly customized search for treatment facilities in your area.  You can search in terms of what types of services are provided (detox, methadone maintenance, half-way house, etc.), what type of delivery is provided (inpatient/outpatient, long-term/short-term residential, day treatment, etc.), what type of populations the program is geared toward (adolescents, seniors, pregnant women, DUI offenders, criminal justice clients, etc.), forms of payment accepted (medicaid, medicare, private insurance, self payment. etc.), types of payment assistance available, and even for options in what language treatment is offered.

Search results include a map of the local area to assist in determining which options are closest to your client’s location, as well as addresses, contact information, and other details.

A direct link to this service is located on the Resource Links tab, under the Addiction Tx category, along with other resources that may be helpful.

PLEASE NOTE: The SMS functionality of United Resource Connection has been discontinued. It is a technology that we continue to be excited about — SMS allows users to get text messages whenever there is a new announcement on the interagency bulletin board/blog — but we never (to-date) had enough beta testers to fully evaluate the technology. Currently similar functioning already in place can be achieved via rss subscription, and there are future plans to have an email subscription service available as well for update notifications whenever content is added to the bulletin board. We do still believe in the technology, and even more so in offering as many options as possible to fit the preferences of people who want to keep up with latest bulletins from their local chapters of United Resource Connection. In that spirit, if there is an interest expressed by users to resurrect SMS (text message update) functionality, we’ll do it. Until then the remainder of this post serves as an archive of the original announcement:

SMS functionality has been added to United Resource Connection allowing subscribers to receive text messages whenever there is an update posted to the Cincinnati Interagency Bulletin Board/Blog.  You can subscribe to the feature by clicking on the drop-down menu “Subscribe to SMS (text messages)” under the Interagency Bulletin Board tab on the Cincinnati website. You will be asked to submit a name, cell phone carrier, and cell number, as well as to agree to the terms of service (e.g., you pay for all the text messages you receive, at the rate specified in your cell phone contract).  By subscribing to the SMS services, you will receive a text message whenever the Interagency Bulletin Board is updated.

The feature is fully operational but will be considered “Beta” until we receive a certain level of feedback from our users to evaluate the functionality.  In the future we would like to provide SMS functionality for each United Resource Connection localization.  Check it out at the Cincinnati website, and let us know what you think.

Edited 9/29/12 to announce that this feature has been discontinued.