Thy will knows no end in me.

“I thought that my voyage had come to its end at the last limit of my power – that the path before me was closed, that provisions were exhausted and the time come to take refuge in silent obscurity. But I find that thy will knows no end in me. And when old words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart: and where the old tracks were lost, new country is revealed with its wonders.”

-Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali XXXVII

[with thanks to Katelyn Noel Gregg Long, who includes this Tagore quote in her superb new Boston University School of Public Health doctoral dissertation on mission hospitals in India. For those interested in learning more, it’s titled, “Mission Hospitals in India: Exploring Responses to Health System Change.”]

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Flint Water Crisis: Case Study

I was inspired and enriched to hear and meet Marc Edwards of Flint Water Study fame at the “Thirst for Clean Water” symposium in northwest Indiana this weekend! The event reminded me that the case study and teaching tools colleague Rachel Gordon Nwankwo and I developed in 2017 on the Flint crisis may have continued relevance for others studying the tragedies of impure water and its toxic effects on living things:

Download:

• Case Study, “Flint Michigan: Lethal Water”
• Instructor’s Note
• Discussion Guide
• Teaching Graphic
• Role-Play Exercise
• Annotated Bibliography

Reflections: Medicine & Religion Conference

learn more about this annual conference

 

AJPH Podcast: Are FBOs compatible with Public Health?

Well, it’s complicated. Click below to listen to the February 2019 podcast, where AJPH editor Alfredo Morabia asks this question of  Drs. William Foege, Robert Pyne, Ellen Idler, and Mimi Kiser:
PODCAST-ENGLISH-FEBRUARY-2019_HC WORKERS – 1_13_19, 8.45 PM.mp3

The podcast is part of the American Journal of Public Health‘s March special section on faith-based organizations. While some of the articles in this section are available only to subscribers, the following are open access:

• Editorial (Alfredo Morabia)
• Special Section Editorial (Ellen Idler, Jeff Levin, Tyler VanderWeele, Anwar Khan)
• “A National Network of Public Health and Faith-Based Organizations to Increase Influenza Prevention Among Hard-to-Reach Populations” (Mimi Kiser and Kay Lovelace)
• “Positive and Negative Influences of Religion, Culture, and Tradition in Public Health” (William H. Foege)

Webcast on Religion & Public Health Partnerships! April 3, 2019

Free webcast on Wednesday, April 3, 2019 to celebrate and discuss the March 2019 American Journal of Public Health special section on “Faith-based organizations and Public Health Practice.”  The  webcast,”Finding Common Ground:  Partnerships  in  Religion  and Public Health,” will be sponsored by the Religion and Public Health Collaborative at Emory University. Join via livestream from 1-5 PM (Eastern Standard Time) at:

http://bit.ly/AJPH-RPHC

The event will take place in the Lawrence P. and Anne Estes Klamon Room, Claudia Nance Rollins Building, Rollins School of Public Health. More about the event from the flier:

“The March issue of the American Journal of Public Health highlights the wide range of partnerships between faith communities and public health agencies. The goal of this conference is to recognize the contributors to the AJPH Special Section and hear their ‘backstory’. Panelists will include the authors, editorial writers, the AJPH Editor and Guest Editors, students from Emory’s Candler School of Theology and Rollins School of Public Health, and representatives of local Atlanta faith-based organization partners.

“Partnerships between the faith-based and public health sectors are not new–they are multifaceted and longstanding, extending back decades. Both research and practice on religion and public health have had a special focus at Emory University and the Carter Center. Religious congregations and faith-based organizations are players in their communities–they present a visible, public face to their communities by providing leadership and capacity for service to others. These social-capital assets are of special value in communities of color and of poverty, and elsewhere that social and economic resources are in short supply.”

 

Community Health Course Free Online

 Community Health Academy 
Reimagining the education of community health
workers and leaders for the digital age.

Registration is now open for the Community Health Academy’s first free, online course through HarvardX and edX, Strengthening Community Health Worker Programs to Deliver Primary Health Care.

This course was created by Last Mile Health, health systems leaders for health systems leaders, and explores how to advocate for, build, and optimize national community health worker programs. The course draws on case studies of exemplar countries — including Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Liberia — as well as lessons learned from a range of experts from around the world. Whether you work in a Ministry of Health, lead or support a community health worker program, or you are simply interested to know more about what it takes to deliver quality care through community health worker programs, learners will have the opportunity to advance their knowledge and skills to implement critical change.

Register now: bit.ly/StrengtheningCHWProgramsEnroll

This course is the first in a series of learning opportunities to be offered through the Community Health Academy, which partners with Ministries of Health to strengthen the clinical skills of community health workers and the capacity of health systems leaders to build higher quality systems by leveraging the power of digital training tools. For more information, visit communityhealthacademy.org.

 

 

Climate change for children, 1924: Revisited

Forster poem illustration by Uldene Trippe.

 

A driller named Doyle made a fortune in oil
And built a great mansion so high
That sparks flying bright from his chimney at night
Burned a hole in the top of the sky

Frederick J. Forster, On the Road to Make Believe (Chicago: Rand McNally & Co, 1924), np.