A Collaboration around Community-based health engagement: We’re joining forces with Project TECH to advance better health outcomes

One of our core values is to put individuals first--our collaboration this year with Project TECH embodies this commitment and represents an exciting step towards working directly with community leaders to encourage everyone to participate in better health outcomes.

Based in Columbia, South Carolina, with extended roots in Atlanta and Charlotte, Project TECH is an organization grounded in four community pillars: 

Technology 

Education 

Communication 

Health 

We’ve been fortunate to connect with the leaders of this organization and identify the common values that motivate our teams to do what we do. 

From our first conversation with Project TECH, it was clear that we have the opportunity to develop a new kind of collaboration model that emphasizes both group’s strengths. Evidation offers the technology and tools for better health engagement, and Project TECH helps bring the voices and experiences of their community. 

Together, we can continually improve and refine how we help individuals measure and improve their health in everyday life. 

With this ongoing collaboration, we hope to learn from and co-develop digital experiences that individuals will find helpful for improving their quality of life and meeting their health goals. Things like making healthy heart decisions and protecting each other from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

To accomplish our goals, Evidation and Project TECH will host design workshops with community members. These will be collaborative spaces focused on eliminating barriers around digital health engagement and research programs, so we can work collectively to improve our offerings.

This cycle of listening and responding is at the core of our mission to put individuals first and help people take control of their own health goals. Stay tuned as we embark on this journey of co-learning.

“Human rights are not things that are put on the table for people to enjoy. These are things you fight for and then you protect.” Waangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Winner 

National Human Rights Month and Universal Human Rights Month are a time every December to remember that we’re all born with important inalienable rights. 

In December 1948, representatives from around the world drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document was the foundation for establishing fundamental human rights that the United Nations has worked to protect ever since. 

The first Article of the document states:

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” 

Human Rights Month serves as a reminder of these principles. 

What are Human Rights?

The United Nations and World Health Organization both define human rights as inherent rights we are all entitled to regardless of race, sex, gender identification, nationality, religion, or ethnicity. 

These include freedom from slavery and torture, religious freedoms, freedom of expression, the right to work and become educated, the right to clean food and water, and a general right to human dignity and respect. 

All of which are vital for our health and wellbeing. 

“Human rights are rights we have simply because we exist as human beings - they are not granted by any state. These universal rights are inherent to us all, regardless of nationality, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. They range from the most fundamental - the right to life - to those that make life worth living, such as the rights to food, education, work, health, and liberty.”

What Role Does Health Play in Human Rights?

The World Health Organization states that everyone has the right to the highest attainable standard of health. Without clean water and air, nutritious food, adequate housing, and the bare necessities of health, people cannot thrive. 

And while these rights are the same for everyone, the reality is,

“Disadvantage and marginalization serve to exclude certain populations in societies from enjoying good health.”

Health equity continues to be something we struggle to achieve.

And despite laws and declarations, violations of human rights still occur in some places. That’s why it’s important to take time each year to remember the strides that have been made and draw attention to the long way we still have to go. 

What You Can Do to Raise Awareness this Human Rights Month

As we turn toward awareness during National and Universal Human Rights Month, let’s remember that we’re all human beings striving to live the best life we can. Shining a light on human rights and the importance of access to quality healthcare for all can help raise awareness for those still fighting for health equity. 

What can you do?

1. Spread the message - Share posts, hashtags, and information. Standupforhumanrights.org has some great resources for easy sharing!
2. Learn more - Read the Universal Declaration for Human Rights. Reach out to local organizations focused on supporting human rights and health equity.
3. Speak up - Lobby with your local community and government to uphold human rights and make positive changes that impact your community. 
4. Participate - join a human rights group near you or go to an event that raises awareness for human rights. 
5. Reflect - Think about health inequality and other human rights violations you may have witnessed. Talk about it with others. Hold discussions. 

It's National Influenza Vaccination Week PLUS National Handwashing Awareness Week!

Every year in December, we’re reminded of the importance of protecting ourselves and others by stopping the spread of flu. 

The two easiest ways to do that are:

1. Getting the flu vaccine
2. Washing our hands

According to the CDC, these simple preventative measures can have a huge impact.

That’s why National Handwashing Awareness Week and National Influenza Vaccination Week occur together every year in the beginning of December. 

What is National Handwashing Awareness Week?

During National Handwashing Awareness Week health organizations focus on the importance of good hand hygiene and teaching us the best way to wash our hands. This year, Handwashing Awareness Week takes place December 1-7. 

Handwashing Awareness Week is now more important than ever, and can even help save lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to the CDC, washing your hands with soap and water is one of the easiest and best ways to stop the spread of germs and help keep you and others from getting sick!

The proper steps of handwashing, according to the CDC are:

1. Wet your hands with clean running water (warm or cold doesn't matter) and apply soap
2. Lather the soap until it bubbles on the back of your hands, under your nails, and between your fingers
3. Scrub your hands for 20 seconds (that's as long as the happy birthday song!)
4. Rinse your hands until they're clean
5. Grab a clean towel or air-dry your hands (for a green-friendly alternative)

It's important to know not just how to wash your hands, but also when. 

When to wash your hands:

• Before eating
• Before, during, and after handling food
• Before and after caring for a sick person
• Before and after touching a cut or wound
• After using the bathroom
• After playing with your pets
• Any time your hands look or feel dirty or greasy

What is National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW)?

National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW) is a national awareness week focused on highlighting the importance of influenza vaccination. This year, NIVW takes place the week of December 5-11.

What is influenza?

Influenza (more commonly called the flu) is a contagious respiratory virus that affects the nose, throat, and lungs. Most people experience mild to moderate symptoms, but for some it’s much more serious.

In fact, the CDC estimates that flu causes 12,000 to 52,000 deaths per year. 

How does the flu spread?

According to the CDC, 

“Most experts believe that flu viruses spread mainly by tiny droplets made when people with flu cough, sneeze or talk. These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby. Less often, a person might get flu by touching a surface or object that has flu virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose or possibly their eyes.”

How can the flu shot help?

The influenza vaccine, known as the flu shot, helps create immunity to flu viruses. But new viruses spread each year, so the flu vaccine is different from year to year.

That's why the CDC recommends getting the flu shot every year. 

The vaccine is usually available in September or October, and can be given well into January and even February in some cases.

Not everyone can get the flu shot. Some individuals, including babies under 6 months old and people with severe allergies or certain health conditions aren’t able to receive it. 

So be sure to talk to your healthcare provider before getting vaccinated. 

Celebrate to Save Lives

Do your part this December by encouraging your loved ones to wash their hands, get their flu shot, and stay healthy. You can spread the word on social media, at school, and even at work!

There's no better way to help than to protect yourself and your loved ones. So wash your hands, visit your local clinic for your vaccine, and start fighting germs today!

Mustaches have become a symbol of awareness for men's health during the month of November.

From handlebar mustaches to the classic English mustache, the famous mutton chops, and even the famous “Monopoly man” mustache. 

You may have noticed that November is the month of the mustache. You may have even heard of No Shave November. But you may be wondering just what facial hair has to do with awareness.

What is Movember?

Movember is the only global charity focused solely on men’s health.

Cleverly combining the words mustache and November, Movember is helping to transform how men think about their health – and how they act on it.

During the month of November, the charity, their partners, and advocates worldwide focus on raising awareness and funding for research on critical issues in men’s health. Their main focuses are on mental health and suicide prevention and prostate and testicular cancer.

Why is Movember Important?

According to the Movember charity, 

“Men’s health is in crisis. Men are dying on average 6 years earlier than women, and for largely preventable reasons.”

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, in 2019 men died by suicide over 3.5 times more than women did. Jill Harkavy-Friedman of the AFSP says:

"Men seek help for mental health less often...they're a little less likely to know they have whatever stresses or mental health conditions that are putting them at greater risk for suicide."

Prostate and testicular cancer are also leading causes of death among men. And testicular cancer is the most common cancer in young men. 

Movember allows us to raise awareness on these cancers to help with early detection and treatment that can be life-saving!

How is Movember Helping?

The Movember charity is the leading charity fighting for awareness on men's health. Since 2003, the foundation and their partners have raised funds to help more than 1,250 projects focused on men's health issues.

They’ve also created a social media storm with the hashtags #movember #menshealth and #mentalhealth on Twitter and Instagram! Memes have also been big since the start of Movember, making their mark on Reddit threads everywhere.

Projects that have been funded through the help of Movember include:

• Clinician Scientist Awards to help progress prostate cancer research
• Men in Mind that helps doctors better understand their male patients and men's distress
• Assisting Fathers in Mourning to help fathers who are grieving the loss of a child
• GAP5-TIGER trial to find treatment for testicular cancer that keeps coming back

How Can I Help?

There are many ways you can help this Movember besides growing a mustache! 

Some ideas to help include:

1. Encourage others to grow their mustache and share it on social media! The more people who participate and talk, the more awareness is spread on men's health!

2. Donate once through the Movember website, or set up a fundraiser on your own to help your choice of men's health charity. Some great charities to consider besides Movember are:

• Prostate Cancer Foundation
• Testicular Cancer Society
• The Face It Foundation
• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
• Local charities to help men in your community, such as the Salvation Army

3. Team up with your school, work, or family and join one of Movember's fundraising challenges while competing against other teams! Some challenges you can join today include:

• Mo first-responder challenge
• Big mustache on campus challenge
• NHL hockey fights cancer challenge
• Mo LGBTQ Challenge
• Mo business club challenge
• Mo wispy lips challenge

4. Educate yourself on the signs of depression. 

According to Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, or SAVE, some warning signs of someone who might be thinking of suicide include:

• Talking about wanting to die
• Looking for a way to end their life
• Talking about feeling hopeless 
• Giving away items
• Talking about plans for suicide
• Increasing drug or alcohol use
• Worsening anxiety or depression

If you notice these signs, reach out for help. Share the suicide hotline number of 800-273-8255. Even if you don't know someone struggling with thoughts of suicide, sharing warning signs and resources for suicide prevention on social media can help save lives not just in Movember, but every month! And remember, if you feel this is an emergency and your loved one's life is at stake, dial 911 and get help right away!

Be the Change for Men Everywhere this Movember

It’s important that we work to create a world that understands the unique health needs faced by individuals and groups of individuals and prevents premature deaths. This Movember, you can help to raise awareness on men's health and save lives. Whether it's by growing out a mustache, encouraging others to, or by sharing the message of Movember, your voice counts!

October brings with it cool, crisp weather, pumpkins, falling leaves, and of course, Health Literacy Month!

For the past 20 years, Health Literacy Month has been a time for advocacy groups, hospitals, businesses, and communities to work together to spread awareness on the importance of health literacy.

What is Health Literacy?

According to the CDC, health literacy is an individual’s ability to find, understand, and use information to help them make well-informed decisions about their health and body.

Some examples of this can include:

• Understanding what your medication is and what it’s used for
• Having knowledge of your body and how it works
• Knowing when to visit a doctor or an emergency room
• Understanding why you might need surgery
• Understanding the risks behind medical procedures

There are many things that can impact a person’s health literacy including age, education, culture, language, and more.

But it’s important to point out that low health literacy affects individuals of all backgrounds. And even those with high overall literacy can have low health literacy.

Why is Health Literacy Important?

Health literacy has a significant effect on overall health. Individuals with low health literacy often avoid going to the doctor until too late. And many suffer from ailments or injuries that could be easily treated if caught early.

And health literacy is just as important to doctors and other medical providers. If their patients don’t understand them, they don’t trust them, and they don’t get the best care. 

In the words of Former United States Surgeon General Dr. Regina M. Benjamin,

“Health literacy is as important for clinicians as it is for patients. To bridge the gap between the medical information provided and its implementation, we need health professionals who are able to speak the language and understand the culture of their patients.”

When people are health literate, they can share their concerns with their doctor easily, like telling them they’re having pain or other symptoms.

This allows doctors to understand their patient’s health concerns and patients to understand their overall health too.

The Cost of Low Health Literacy

The physical, emotional, and financial costs associated with lower health literacy can be high.

Many individuals wait to seek care until their symptoms become too much for them to live with. By then, issues or injuries that may have been less expensive and less invasive to treat, might be much worse and more expensive.

According to the Office of Disease Prevention, low health literacy can cause people to go to the emergency room (ER) more often than they need to.

Constant visits to the ER can be expensive. They can also be frustrating.

While the emergency room is the best place to handle a true emergency, it isn’t the right place for everything. And long wait-times just to be told you need care elsewhere can lead some to avoid seeking treatment in the future.

How Culture Impacts Health Literacy

Our beliefs about health and healthcare are shaped by not only our personal experiences and values, but our cultural, religious, and historical experiences and values as well.

It’s critical that we recognize the importance of culture and community on health and health literacy. According to the Center for Health Care Strategies,

“If cultural norms do not match up with the dominant values of the healthcare system, an individual — even with adequate reading, writing, and numeracy skills — can have trouble accessing health services, communicating with providers, and pursuing effective self-management. Such cultural mismatches — along with low socio-economic levels and historic discrimination — have contributed to disparities in health and health care experienced by individuals in racial, ethnic, and linguistic minority groups.”

Barriers to Health Literacy

The CDC estimates 9 out of 10 people struggle to understand medical information when it isn’t put in simple language. And there is a lot of work being done to encourage doctors to speak simply to their patients to help with this.

But for some, that’s not enough.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, individuals from racial and ethnic minority groups who don’t speak English as their first-language are at high risk of having low health literacy.

Older age, living below the poverty line, lower education levels, and living with disabilities are other significant barriers to health literacy.

How Can Health Literacy Month Help?

The Institute for Healthcare Advancement, also known as the IHA, began its efforts to help improve health literacy in 1999. Today, they use social media, fliers, newsletters, and other outreach programs to spread the word on health literacy during the month of October and encourage other medical groups to do the same!

According to the IHA, the goal is simple to,

“build a world where all individuals have access to quality health outcomes.”

To do that, they work directly with doctors, medical groups, and others committed to improving health literacy for everyone.

There are also other groups dedicated to improving health literacy. Like the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Community centers and community clinics are also great for providing free classes, translators, and other resources to help support those with low health literacy and help those who want to learn about their health and their options.

What Can I Do to Help?

Some things you can do to help raise awareness for Health Literacy Month are:

• Making fliers on health literacy and sharing them
• Creating an email list to educate people
• Share the health literacy month website
• Work with your community for outreach opportunities
• Use social media to spread awareness

Here you can find fliers, social media posts, videos and more already made and ready to share!

You can share these tips with others, spread the word on social media and blogs, or even use these tips yourself with a loved one to help them improve their health.

Educate and Inform this October

While Health Literacy Month technically ends with Halloween, it’s importance stays the same all year long.

Take time this month, and in the months to come, to talk to people at your school, work, or at home about health literacy and why it matters. Ask them to spread awareness and give suggestions on what they can do to let others know health literacy month is in full swing! 

June is National Adopt a Cat Month!

Thousands of kittens are born each year, and many of them end up in shelters. In fact, an article on humanpro.org reports that over 3.2 million cats end up in shelters each year. And 27% end up euthanized. Many others end up living out their lives in shelters, never adopted.

And while cat adoption rates in the US are going up in recent years, there are still so many left without homes.

Even more never find their way to shelters, and instead roam communities as feral strays. The impact of this is severe, and not just for the cats.

A 2018 article addressing the disastrous impact feral cats have on communities and the environment reported that,

“Feral, free-roaming cats have been documented by dozens of studies to be indiscriminate killers of wildlife and the cause of at least 63 species extinctions, according to a 2016 analysis of invasive species impacts.”

Adopting a cat (or two!) doesn’t just help the animal, it helps our communities and ecosystem too. And studies show that we are healthier, happier, and live better when we share our homes with pets.

Health Benefits of Having a Cat

According to a study by the University of Indiana, just watching videos of cats,

“does more than simply entertain; it boosts viewers’ energy and positive emotions and decreases negative feelings.”

If seeing a cat video online can do so much for our mental health, just imagine the benefits of snuggling up with a cat or two of your own!

And cats aren’t the only pets to provide health benefits. Studies show that there are numerous physical and mental health benefits to sharing our homes with pets.

According to a CDC article on pets and people,

“Studies have shown that the bond between people and their pets can increase fitness, lower stress, and bring happiness to their owners. Some of the health benefits of having a pet include:

Decreased blood pressure

Decreased cholesterol levels

Decreased triglyceride levels

Decreased feelings of loneliness

Increased opportunities for exercise and outdoor activities

Increased opportunities for socialization”

And a study from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases found that children that grow up in homes with pets are less likely to develop allergic diseases.

In the news release summarizing the study, the chief of the allergic mechanisms section at NIAID states,

“This new finding changes the way scientists think about pet exposure; scientists must now figure out how pet exposure causes a general shift of the immune system away from an allergic response.”

With increased rates of allergies and autoimmune disorders in recent years, early exposure to animals could potentially mean a HUGE health benefit!

Where to Adopt

The best way to adopt a cat (or any pet) is by visiting your local animal shelter. The following resources are great search tools to help you find one near you!

Petfinder.com

ASPCA Shelter Search

Adoptapet.com

The Shelter Pet Project

And, if you need some guidance or more information before bringing home your new addition to the family, this checklist from American Humane is an excellent resource.

Member Insights

We’re excited about Adopt a Cat Month and about the many health benefits of having a pet.

And we wanted to know how many of our Evidation Members currently have pets. So, we asked.

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Out of the 19,118 individuals who answered the question, 13,451 currently share their home with a pet.

That’s over 70% percent!

Next time, we’ll have to find out what types of pets Evidation Members prefer!

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