Enhance agency awareness this Pain Awareness Month

While pain is a normal response to illness and injury, chronic pain doesn’t have to be accepted as simply a normal part of aging. September is Pain Awareness Month. This observance is dedicated to helping raise awareness about issues regarding pain and pain management, including increasing access to effective pain management.

Step forward this month to help let members of your community know they’re not alone in their chronic pain experience.

• According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, nearly 100 million Americans experience chronic pain. That’s more than the combined total of all those who have diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Provide a voice for these people by placing an item on your municipal government’s regular meeting agenda seeking to proclaim September as Pain Awareness Month. Sign up to speak about the issue during the meeting’s public comment period, or at the time the proclamation is entered into the record. Here’s a sample proclamation.
• Host an educational session at your local library about misconceptions about chronic pain. Discussing these issues and their various treatment methods can help lessen the stigma and fear that often plague those who need treatment.
• Set up an information table at a local health fair. Provide lots of information about pain management and how your agency can help. Distribute a ready-made newsletter about chronic pain at the event.
• Contact the organizer of a pain support group in your community and offer to provide refreshments (and agency materials) for one of the group’s meetings in September. Visit the website of the American Chronic Pain Association for help finding support groups in your area.
• National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week takes place every September. Call local television news stations and offer to assist them with a news story about this pain-related observance. Find story ideas here.
• Become an advocate and a voice for those with chronic pain. Contact your local newspaper’s health writer and offer to help with an article about pain management. Offer to put them in touch with clients you have helped with this issue. Be sure to identify and speak with clients who agree to do this before you ever contact the newspaper. 

Plan to reach potential clients this Healthy Aging Month

Aging isn’t often portrayed as something to look forward to, but this September is a great time to turn that around.

September is Healthy Aging Month. It’s a month set aside to highlight longevity, successful aging and avoiding declines in physical, mental and emotional health.

Join groups from across the country in celebrating the vitality of your community’s aging population this month. To learn more, visit the sponsor organization’s website.

• Arrange to host a trivia challenge at a local independent living facility. Ask questions about healthy habits and times gone by. Award fun prizes to the winners. Find questions here and here or make up your own.
• Sponsor a senior-friendly mall walk. Contact mall management and ask a few noncompeting vendors to join you in encouraging your community’s older adults to stay active and walk their way to better health.
• Host a class at a local house of worship about understanding medications. Find a ready-made class here. Call for pricing of individual elements (866-232-6477).
• Remember that healthy aging is for everyone, not just your clients. Encourage all your agency’s employees to be mindful of their health and take steps toward aging healthfully.
• Host a workshop on senior nutrition and educate your community’s older adults about how our dietary needs change as we age. Find free nutrition aids here, here, here and here, or check out the Health Matters Education Series for a ready-made program.  
• Focus on fall prevention. Falls are a major threat to senior health and independence, and your services can go a long way toward helping to preventing them. Promote your agency’s fall prevention services, including in-home fall risk assessments, by posting flyers on the bulletin boards of area senior centers and making fall-prevention focused newsletters available to them. Find ready-made newsletters here.

Build up your outreach efforts this Minority Health Month

Although we should strive for health equality all year long, April is Minority Health Month and it’s a time when we should pay special attention to our efforts at promoting access to health care resources for all ethnic and racial groups.

Not only will it improve the health of these groups, which studies show have more difficulty accessing health care, but these special efforts can improve your patient census as more members of minority groups connect with you, the agency that took the time to reach out to them.

• Start by visiting the website of the Office of Minority Health. Take the time to learn about health equity and minority outreach. Commit to reaching a broader section of your community. You can find great tool kits on the issue here and here.
• Reach out and partner with groups that serve your community’s minority markets. These include community health centers, charitable organizations, chambers of commerce, church groups, and groups that work with migrant populations. Offer to help educate the groups they serve about various health issues that impact them.
• Build your agency’s library of Spanish-language educational materials. Start by visiting the National Network of Libraries of Medicine for a varied selection of health topics in Spanish. You can also find Spanish materials personalized to your agency, including brochures, health logs and helpful zone flyers. Arrange to have some of your materials displayed at health clinics that serve large Hispanic populations.
• Get involved in Kidney Sundays, an effort of the National Kidney Disease Education Program. Kidney Sundays aims to educate the attendees of primarily African American churches about kidney disease. After all, although African Americans make up only about 13 percent of the population, about 32 percent of U.S. cases of kidney failure are in African Americans. Download a free Kidney Sundays toolkit and then contact local African American churches to discuss ways you can help educate their congregations about the disease. Distribute agency flyers on kidney disease to those you encounter at your Kidney Sundays event.
• Contact minority patients you have served and their families. Ask them to provide testimonials about the care they received from your agency. Use these testimonials in your marketing materials and future promotions to highlight your agency’s inclusiveness.
• Recognize the health disparities in heart disease and then take action. A toolkit to begin a heart health program can be found at the website of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Don’t forget to stock up on your agency’s heart disease-related brochures to aid in your outreach efforts.