Talk to Your Dr. Webinar Offered by The Ntwork and GLMA

A new feature of the CDC's Tips From Former Smokers campaign was unveiled this week— “Talk With Your Doctor” (TWYD). The goal of this phase of the campaign is to engage health care providers and encourage them to use Tips as an opportunity to start a dialogue with their patients who smoke about quitting. It is also meant to serve as a reminder for smokers to talk with their healthcare providers about effective methods to help them quit.

As you may remember from our press release about the Tips campaign, "One of the ‘Tips from Former Smokers’ ads features a lesbian who suffers from asthma triggered by working in a smoke filled bar. Recently released data from the CDC shows that LGBT people smoke cigarettes at rates that are nearly 70% higher than the general population." This new phase of the campaign is yet another amazing way to reach out to our communities about this huge disparity!

On Thursday, June 13th, The Network will be teaming up with the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) andCenterLink to bring you a webinar discussing the “Talk With Your Doctor” campaign, and the impact that it will have on the health of LGBT communities.

Join us at 2pm EST by registering HERE!

Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com, posted by The Network.

House Balls: Keeping LGBT community health in vogue

House Balls: Keeping LGBT community health in vogue by publichealthnerdz Posted by The Network for LGBT Health Equity <comment-reply@wordpress.com>

Daniella Matthews-Trigg

Program Associate

Highlights of Creating Change: Ballroom 101!

 Reposted at http://www.keystothecloset.blogspot.com

 

 

Last year, The Network tabled at Creating Change, and while that provided a really great opportunity for me to talk to almost every person who attended the conference, I didn't have much of a chance to attend sessions. This year, our tactic was different, and I found myself pouring over the conference book, completely overwhelmed by the diversity of sessions, and the fact that every single session I REALLY wanted to attend was at the exact same time as every OTHER session I REALLY wanted to attend.

Photo from Skillz Ball 2012 (photo credits go to The Rainbow Times)

"Ballroom 101: Calling All the Children to School" was one of the sessions that I instantly circled in my booklet. And then set like, three alarm reminders in my phone so I wouldn't miss it. Since watching Paris is Burning a few years ago, I have been completely fascinated by Ballroom culture and it's role in queer communities of color. Last July, the LifeSkills team at Fenway Health hosted a ball as a community outreach event to spread awareness about their study (for young trans women), other studies at Fenway, and the health services available at Fenway. The event was a HUGE success!

Commonly called "Drag Balls", balls are competitive dance and performance events based on categories that highlight the talents, creativity, skills and attributes of participants.

Bursting into public consciousness between 1989 and 1991, the culture of drag balls and voguing can be traced back to the second half of the 19th century. Harlem’s Hamilton Lodge staged its first queer masquerade ball in 1869, and some 20 years later a medical student stumbled into another ball that was taking place in Walhalla Hall on the Lower East Side. He witnessed 500 same-sex male and female couples ‘waltzing sedately to the music of a good band’.

Balls however, are much more than just "events". Balls represent cultural pride within queer communities of color. Balls are organized and hosted by the heads of "houses", which are chosen-family kinship networks that provide both community (in the form of safety, stability, and sometimes housing) and mentorship to community members (and especially youth), not only for the balls, but for life as a queer person.

CLICK IMAGE
http://voguinggifs.tumblr.com

The Ballroom 101 session at Creating Change focused largely on the use of Balls to facilitate conversations about safer sex and HIV/Aids in the 1980's and early 90's. I kept thinking about Lifeskills' Skillz Ball and what an innovative throwback to public health outreach techniques used during the height of the HIV/Aids epidemic.  Outreach at Balls, which by definition are attended by traditionally disenfranchised and high risk communities, is the perfect opportunity for community engagement in public health campaigns.

While outreach at Balls has often been about sexual health and HIV (which is greatly needed and so, so important!), the expansion into other areas of health as well, such as tobacco use in LGBT communities, and healthcare access for those without insurance, could so easily be done.

So much of creating healthy individuals and communities is about empowerment, and Balls, which have always represented safe spaces, free expression, acceptance, and creativity, are ideal opportunities for public health outreach and targeted health campaigns!

If you have not yet seen Paris is Burning, you can watch the full film here: (andddd you should get on that right away.)

Check out LifeSkills on facebook!

For more information on Voguing and the House Ballroom Scene of NYC 1989-92 and Harlem's Drag Ball History

A New Year: Quitlines, targeted campaigns and the LGBT community

Posted on January 11, 2012 by publichealthnerd
Daniella Matthews-Trigg, Program Associate

Greetings all!
So, here we are at that infamous time when we try especially hard to improve ourselves. And between recovering from holiday indulgences and starting a new year, there can be a lot of work to do.

Quitting smoking is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions and 2012 marks the 20th anniversary of one of the major smoking cessation tools: the first Quitline in North America!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the effectiveness of targeting campaigns toward specific communities. Quitlines are a resource that is available to everyone, but targeted campaigns make sure that every community KNOWS that it is an available resource for THEM.

Quitlines have been shown to be extremely effective in supporting people through their quitting by offering “coaching and counseling, referrals, mailed materials, training to healthcare providers, Web-based services and, in some instances, free medications such as nicotine replacement therapy (NRT)”, and often in the process of quitting, what is most needed is SUPPORT.

One excellent campaign, Your Quit Date, is from Project Filter, a program of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. Starring local LGBT celebrities as spokesmodels, the fabulous Martini and comedian Matt Bragg, the ads highlight “quit date” goals and the free resources available through the quitline and project filter. It speaks right to the community about the culturally competent support through Quitlines that are available for THEM.


This campaign is fun, relevant and effective and we LOVE it!
At the network, we also have some really useful resources about why it is so important to make Quitlines culturally competent and how to make it happen. Check out this brief policy paper on the reasons for adding sexual orientation and gender identity questions to state tobacco quitlines . A case study titled “Making Minnesota’s Quitlines Accessible to LGBTs” is an brief, informal interview with a leader in an amazing statewide effort to enhance LGBT access to tobacco quitlines. It covers goals, challenges, and a lesson learned and is an excellent inspiration for other organizations and states doing similar work. Additionally, download and print a few copies of our targeted national quitline poster to put up! (Do you have anything that we should add to our list of resources? We love knowing about the work that is done, so click here or email us at lgbthealthequity@gmail.com!)

Rates of smoking in the LGBT community are higher than in the general population, so it only makes sense that these communities be especially focused on for smoking interventions. We know that LGB and T communities are often stigmatized and discriminated against and therefore, reasonably, are more hesitant to access services. Creating campaigns that target the LGBT community is a way to successfully reach this vulnerable population.

Additionally, many LGBT people live in rural areas and are socio-economically disenfranchised and as a result may face even more difficulties when accessing care. Quitlines are FREE and accessible to everyone who has access to a phone. They are toll free and can even be called from a payphone. Because of the proven success and accessibility of Quitlines, they should be a focus of anti-smoking interventions in the LGBT community.

At this time of year when people are working on their resolutions to quit smoking, we need to make an extra effort to make sure that resources are culturally competent and that people in our community know about all of the services that are available. So lets all add “increase and support LGBT cultural competency and targeting in Quitlines and anti-smoking campaigns!” to our list of resolutions this year…and hopefully it’ll last longer than the one about going to the gym.
Posted at http://lgbthealthequity.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/a-new-year-quitlines-targeted-campaigns-and-the-lgbt-community/
Reposted at http://www.keystothecloset.blogspot.com