Source: http://www.aoa.org/x6522.xml

Optometric Outreach

Cover the Uninsured

The AOA is once again a national supporter of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) Cover the Uninsured program. Ten years ago, Congress created the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover kids whose parents work but cannot afford health insurance. The RWJF has integrated the resources of Cover the Uninsured Week and the Covering Kids & Families Back-to-School Campaign to focus on demonstrating broad support for the reauthorization of SCHIP and the need to cover America’s Uninsured Children. For more information on this and to see what is happening in your state, go to www.covertheuninsured.org.

Rural Health Fellows Program

Program Description:

The Rural Health Fellows (RHF) program is a year-long, intensive program that develops leaders who can articulate a clear and compelling vision for rural America.

Fellows will gain valuable insights and build critical skills in three primary domains:

Personal, team, and organizational leadership;
Health policy analysis and advocacy;
National Rural Health Association governance and structure.

These ambitious learning and skill development objectives will be accomplished through a combination experiential and action learning, exposure to premier faculty and seasoned practitioners, and reinforcement through executive coaching and structured team assignments.

Program Charter:

To identify and develop individuals of high character and capability who share a passion for impacting rural health policy at the local, state and national levels.
To create and build a community of leaders who will work individually and collectively to advocate for the health care needs of rural communities.
To develop growing levels of leadership skill and advocacy competence that will translate into action and results on rural health policy issues.
To educate, develop and inspire a networked community of leaders who will step forward to serve in key positions in the National Rural Health Association, affiliated rural health advocacy groups, and local and state legislative bodies.

Requirements:

Applicants must either be members of the NRHA, apply to become members of the NRHA or be/become an affiliate member of their State Rural Health Association
Applicants must have a sponsor to support travel/lodging expenses to attend 3 NRHA meetings:
1. The NRHA Rural Health Policy Institute in Washington DC--January;
2. The NRHA Annual Conference in New Orleans--May;
3. The final RHF Graduation Ceremony in a location to be determined--November
Applicants must be willing/able to commit to monthly conference calls as part of this program and complete a final project as a member of an Action Project Team
Applicants must demonstrate a strong commitment to improving the health of all rural Americans and populations through appropriate and equitable health care services. This commitment must be demonstrated in the application essay as well as through the curriculum vitae/résumé of the applicant
Applications for the 2009 Rural Health Fellows Program are now available! Apply Now!

For more information, please contact Amy Elizondo, NRHA Vice President, Program Services at (202) 639-0550 or by email at Elizondo@NRHArural.org

Optometrists to Provide Screenings at VFW Meeting

The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) will hold their annual meeting in Orlando, Florida in August. For the last four years, optometrists have provided vision screenings during the VFW health fair. The American Optometric Association (AOA) will coordinate this with doctors from the Florida Optometric Association. The VFW convention represents the largest gathering of veterans in the nation each year. In addition to assessing hundreds of veterans for eye health care and vision problems, this is an important outreach effort, demonstrating the importance of regular comprehensive eye care to generations of aging veterans.

Volunteers are needed for Saturday, August 16 through Tuesday, August 19 from 8:30 – 2:30 and on Wednesday, August 20 from 8:30 until noon. For further information or to volunteer, please contact Kelly Hipp, Director of Professional Relations at KHipp@aoa.org or 703 837-1346.

The American Optometric Association is a member of the The Falls Free™ Coalition. The Coalition is a group of national organizations and state coalitions working to reduce the growing number of falls and fall-related injuries among older adults. For more information, go to www.healthyagingprograms.org. Produced by the National Council on Aging's Center for Healthy Aging, with support from the Archstone Foundation and the Home Safety Council, the Falls Free™ E-Newsletter is designed to enhance communications among Falls Free™ Coalition members. Newsletters will be posted on the Center's Web site www.healthyagingprograms.org.

Lamaze International Promotes InfantSEE® — The mission of Lamaze International is to promote, support and protect normal birth through education and advocacy. Lamaze affirms the normalcy of birth, acknowledges women’s inherent ability to birth their babies, and explores all the ways that women find strength and comfort during labor and birth. We envision for the future a world of confident women choosing normal birth. In the October edition of their E-Newsletter, Lamaze International included the following promotion for the InfantSEE® program:

Program Ensures Children See Their World
All new mothers care about their babies’ well-being. There is one aspect of newborns’ health being overlooked, though – vision and eye condition. Only 13 percent of women with children under the age of 2 reported bringing them to an eye care professional, according to a survey by BabyCenter.com.
InfantSEE®, a public health program that offers free eye assessments to children within one year of age, hopes to change that statistic. Started by the American Optometric Association (AOA) partnered with The Vision Care Institute of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. in the summer of 2005, InfantSEE® helps to detect the presence or risks of eye conditions such as glaucoma and eye cancer in infants.
To learn more about the program or to find an InfantSEE® provider in your area, visit www.infantsee.org.

Click here to learn more about Lamaze International.