UNE has strong presence at Maine Public Health Association annual conference

More than 400 health care professionals from around the state attended the annual conference of the Maine Public Health Association on October 17 at the Augusta Civic Center. UNE participated in many ways:

Keynote Address
Director of the Maine CDC Sheila Pinette, DO, UNECOM Class of 2000, and UNE Vice President of Clinical Affairs and Director of UNE’s Public Health Programs (and former Director of Maine CDC, 1996-2011), Dora Anne Mills, MD, MPH, FAAP co-presented the keynote address on partnerships. Pinette gave an update on the upcoming budget challenges such as federal sequestration. She made the case for the need for a variety of public health partnerships, given the economic challenges to public health funding. 

Mills followed by talking about three emerging public health partnerships: patient-centered or population-centered initiatives (partnering with people to ensure stated needs are met); making deals with organizations based on complementary strengths and needs; and shooting for the stars with other organizations, i.e. setting far-reaching goals. They both noted that although they come from different backgrounds, they are able to work together on issues in common, and hope others do as well.

Health Literacy
Director of the UNE-Maine Geriatric Education Center Judith Metcalf, APRN, BC, MS and UNE Health Literacy Center Director Sue Stableford, MPH, MSB gave a presentation on, “Addressing Health Literacy Challenges for Maine’s Older Adults.” Maine, one of the oldest states in the nation, faces a serious barrier to achieving public health and health care improvements – low health literacy. Just 12 percent of working age adults and only one percent of adults age 75 or older have proficient health literacy skills. 

The presentation shared how the UNE-Maine Geriatric Education Center is using a Geriatric Health Literacy Learning Collaborative team training model to address this issue, as well as how these efforts prepare health organizations and academic programs to address national policy goals and meet professional accreditation requirements.

Add Verb Productions

Professional actress Emily Dennis, Portland, performs The Thin Line, a one-woman show about eating disorder awareness and prevention

UNE’s Add Verb Productions Director Cathy Plourde presented, “The Thin Line” with actor Emily Dennis to a standing room only crowd. They were accompanied by Mainely Girls – an independent program complementary to Add Verb in their efforts to help the state’s efforts to combat eating disorders. The Thin Line is a one-woman show addressing coping with eating disorders which is presented to schools and universities, as well as to health care professionals. The play serves as an intervention tool, providing knowledge and awareness with a call to action, recognizing that the sooner a person struggling with the illness can get help the better and sooner recovery can occur. 

Mary Orear, the Executive Director of Mainely Girls has been organizing “treatment teams” in rural areas throughout Maine to work together to help girls, boys, men and women in their region, and maintains a listing of professionals on their website. Additionally, Mainely Girls helps direct individuals, whether family or professionals, to other resources and options for resources and presents to students as well as faculty in schools about prevention and early intervention. Add Verb and Mainely Girls are planning a tour of Aroostook County with both the play and the Mainely Girls presentation, and have received partial funding from the Sadie & Harry Davis Foundation to do so.

MPHA Board President
UNE Director and Associate Professor in the Graduate Programs in Public Health Denise Bisaillion, Ed.D., was elected as the president of MPHA Board of Directors for the upcoming coming year. The MPHA has approximately 400 members and is the oldest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in Maine. The association aims to protect all Mainers, their families and their communities from preventable, serious health threats and strives to ensure that community-based health promotion and disease prevention activities and preventive health services are universally accessible in Maine. 

MPHA represents a broad array of health professionals and others who care about their own health and the health of their communities. MPHA builds a collective voice for public health, working to ensure access to health care, protecting funding for core public health services and eliminating health disparities. Through its e-newsletters, advocacy alerts, annual conference and networking meetings, the MPHA communicates the latest public health science and practice to members, opinion leaders and the public.


 

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.