AMA Alliance Health Promotion Information

 

SAVE

The Stop America’s Violence Everywhere (SAVE) program is an ongoing effort of the AMA Alliance to help reduce violence in America.  The goals of SAVE include providing violence prevention education and promoting healthy lifestyles and healthy choices.  The umbrella of SAVE efforts now includes Domestic Violence Prevention, Violence Prevention Education in Schools and Internet Safety.   The AMA Alliance celebrates “SAVE Today” on the second Wednesday of October.

 

As part of the SAVE effort, the AMA Alliance offers six activity books for children in kindergarten through third grade with creative exercises that teach young readers about nutrition, safety, self-esteem and conflict resolution.  These books help kids to focus on making healthy, positive choices.  The series includes: You Don’t Have to be Bullied, Hands Are NOT for Hitting, I Can Be Healthy, I Can Be Safe, I Can Be; and I Can Choose.  Books can be ordered through the AMA Alliance website at www.amaalliance.org.  In addition to the activity books, there are seven downloadable health fact sheets for youth on topics of health and well-being which can be ordered or downloaded and printed.  The fact sheets include: Youth Health and Safety; Internet Safety; Youth Substance Abuse; Teen Sexuality; Healthy Lifestyles and Nutrition; Bullying; and Youth and Adolescent Body Image.  Also available are Bullying bookmarks, Hands are Not for Hitting placements and a Healthy Lifestyles CD-ROM.

 

Faux Paw

In a preventive effort to reach children before they become victims of Internet crimes, the Faux Paw, the Techno Cat program teaches basic rules of Internet safety to elementary school children. This program by the Internet Keep Safe Coalition offers three children’s books and animated films that teach children in a fun, non-threatening way how to protect themselves from growing online threats, such as Internet predators and cyber-bullying. To view the program, visit www.ikeepsafe.org. This is a great opportunity for the Alliance to introduce a successful elementary school program to their communities.

 

Screen Out!

Screen Out! is a three year public awareness campaign with the ultimate goal of getting tobacco out of youth-rated movies through a strong base of national support, petitions and endorsements.  According to the AMA Alliance Today, “Experts estimate that movies with tobacco imagery influence more than one third of all new teen smokers to start…[and] helps recruit approximately 390,000 new youth smokers a year.”  The AMA Alliance has created an easy-to-use guide that outlines all of the various ways to get involved in the Screen Out! campaign.   To view the guide book with its fact sheets, campaign pamphlet, sign-up form, helpful tips, etc. go to www.screenout.org.  You can also download two PowerPoint presentations, one to present to fellow Alliance members and the other for the general public.  Everything that you need to start the campaign is at the Screen Out! website.   To obtain brochures and other handouts and/or to borrow the Screen Out! banner contact Melissa Walthers, AMA Alliance  Screen Out! Project Coordinator, at Melissa.Walthers@ama-assn.org or 312-464-5305.

 

Walking Challenge

Join your fellow Alliance members this fall for the AMA Alliance 2008 Walking Challenge. Make a difference in your health and support Screen Out! one step at a time.  Following on the success of last year’s challenge, teams of five members will walk 2,000 miles in six months to symbolize a walk from Chicago to Hollywood to carry our message of getting smoking out of youth-rated movies.  More information will follow this summer and look for the kickoff at the Leadership Development Conference (LDC) in October.

 

Grants/Funding/Awards

 

The AMA Alliance Health Promotion Policy Grants (HPPGs) are available to Alliances interested in conducting projects and activities designed to further AMA Alliance health policy. The AMA Alliance HPPGs have three objectives:

• Fund projects that increase AMA Alliance visibility in a positive and proactive way.
• Fund projects that help put AMA Alliance policy into action by providing information or a service of value to your community.
• Fund projects that will provide opportunities for ongoing involvement in a discussion of topics that are important to the family of medicine.

 

Depending on the project, grant awards generally range from $100 to $500. Each Alliance is limited to one grant per calendar year.  Applications must be received by the AMA Alliance at least two weeks before the event.  To apply, visit www.amaalliance.org.

 

The AMA Alliance Youth Alcohol Awareness Grant Program was created to encourage community-based projects that enhance the AMA’s commitment to eliminating underage drinking and its health and social consequences.  This grant program has two goals:

• Educate local elected officials, members of  a community organization or general public about the health and social consequences of underage drinking and the need to change community standards that accept some level of underage drinking.
• Gain community member and community leader/elected official support for changing community standards by instituting environmental changes at the regulatory or legislative level.

 

For the list of criteria and application requirements go to www.amaalliance.org.  Several grants in the amount of $1,000 are still available.

 

The philosophy of the AMA Foundation Fund for Better Health begins with the idea that local communities and organizations have great knowledge and insight into their community’s health care issues.  Based on the thought that local leaders can hold the best solutions to those problems, the AMA Foundation, in association with the AMA Alliance, created the Fund for Better Health in 2002. 

                        

Through this program, the AMA Foundation provides $2,000 seed grants for grassroots, community public health projects. The deadline for applying for these grants is July 15, 2008. Grants made in 2008 will support programs addressing these public health issues:

 

• Healthy Lifestyles - To include programs such as nutrition & physical fitness, alcohol, tobacco, & drug prevention/education, smoking cessation, the prevention of favorable depictions of smoking in the media, immunizations, HIV/AIDS education and prevention, skin & other cancer awareness/prevention and teen pregnancy.
• Caring for the Uninsured/Underinsured - To include programs such as clinic projects, health fairs and health screenings that provide care and/or health education to the uninsured and/or underinsured. To include guidance and education to the uninsured and/or underinsured about insurance eligibility. Projects are encouraged to have an emphasis on patient access to quality care. 
• Public Safety - To include programs such as anti-bullying, domestic violence, suicide prevention, teen dating violence and internet safety.
• Patient Safety & Health Literacy - To include programs such as health literacy projects and projects that aid an organization’s ability to identify and report medical errors, implement proven practices to reduce errors and create provider and consumer awareness of the issue.

A maximum of $2,000 will be distributed to each grant recipient.  To view eligibility and download an application, visit www.amafoundation.org/go/fundforbetterhealth.

 

Health Awareness Promotion (HAP) Awards are given each year in recognition of excellence in health promotion projects and programs of county Alliances and resident physician spouse/medical student spouse groups throughout the nation.  Visit www.amaalliance.org for more information.

 

Partnerships:

The AMA Alliance will be partnering with the following organizations:

• American Psychiatric Association Alliance Essay Contest – “Secrets” – www. apaAlliance.org
• Partnership for a Drug Free America – www.drugfree.org
• American Heart Association – www.americanheart.org
• Family Violence Prevention Fund – www.endabuse.org

Look for additional information on these partnerships as it becomes available.

 

Great Website:

A website that can help you get the latest information on health topics is www.healthfinder.gov.  It is an award-winning Federal Web site for consumers, developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services together with other Federal agencies and it has been recognized as a key resource for finding the best government and nonprofit health and human services information on the Internet.   If you need articles for your newsletters or need to identify what health issues are being observed per month, this site is a great resource.