News
September 2012
Launch of the Cochlear Implant School Toolkit
website
KDHRC is pleased to announce that we have launched the Cochlear Implant School Toolkit website: www.cischooltoolkit.com
The website provides professionals and parents with tools to aid the academic and social success of a child with a cochlear implant who is entering a mainstream classroom for the first time. It also provides classroom lesson plans, a video explaining the five senses, deafness, and cochlear implants, and online games for children.
KDHRC received funding from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) to develop the Cochlear Implant School Toolkit.
December 2011
Cochlear Implant Toolkit videos are award-winning
KDHRC is pleased to announce that the videos we created for the Cochlear Implant Toolkit recently received three industry awards recognizing their high quality and impact.
“Welcoming Children with Cochlear Implants” is for teachers and discusses optimal approaches for mainstreaming a child with a cochlear implant. It won two awards:
- The Pixie Award, a gold level award, for use of graphic elements in a program.
- A Digital Video (DV) Award, celebrating technical and creative achievement in digital video production.
“Making Sense of Our Senses” is a video for young children (K-2) on the five sense and how cochlear implants help some children hear. It won a DV Award in the Format-Corporate Communications category.
Inertia Films produced the Cochlear Implant Toolkit videos through a subcontract with KDHRC.
KDHRC received funding from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) to develop the Cochlear Implant Toolkit.
November 2011
KDHRC publishes evaluation results of a public health tool to help teachers effectively accommodate and teach children with cochlear implants in mainstream classrooms
Research brief no. 9 reports on the evaluation of the Teachers' Guide and DVD components of the Cochlear Implant School Toolkit. The evaluation results suggest that exposure to the Teacher's Guide and DVD relates to increases in elementary school teacher's knowledge about cochlear implants, the educational and social needs of the children who have them, and methods to accommodate and teach them effectively. Visit our Publications page to view the brief.
October 2011
Research brief no. 8 presents an intergenerational approach to improve the health literacy skills of Latino families
This research brief provides the preliminary evaluation results of a pilot version of the novel health program, En Familia (ENF). The evaluative findings suggest that ENF has several efficacious and feasible elements in its pilot form. The brief outlines these elements and offers insight into ways the program will evolve from the pilot form to one with full content and wide applicability. Visit our Publications page to view the brief.
KDHRC president presents on teen drug and alcohol prevention at Atlanta conference
Dr. Kristen Holtz presented a workshop on Fresh Approaches to Reaching Teens with Drug and Alcohol Prevention Messages at the 24th annual National Prevention Network Conference, Atlanta, Georgia in September. The workshop offered participants the opportunity to explore the mindset of teens who are directly exposed to drugs and alcohol by learning about research, tools, and techniques used by advertisers and marketers.
August-September 2011
KDHRC publishes research brief on challenges to the effective implementation of promotores programs by community-based nonprofits
In 2007, KDHRC launched its Informing Public Health research brief series to disseminate innovative, objective, and timely information to solve public health and other social issues. Brief no. 7 reports on data that suggest that community-based nonprofits that choose to implement promotores programs face substantial implementation challenges. The brief offers macro-level and organizational strategies that may help nonprofits to launch and systemize these programmatic initiatives. Visit our Publications page to view the brief.
Conference season for KDHRC
KDHRC research staff will present at several national conferences throughout the summer and fall. Below is our 2011 conference schedule. We hope to see you there!
- CDC Fifth Annual National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media, Atlanta, GA. Title: En Familia: An intergenerational approach to improving knowledge and health literacy skills in Latino families. Poster presentation on August 10, 2011. Authors: Palmer, L., Stringer, K., Holtz, K.
- American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting, Washington, DC. Title: Understanding characteristics of youth willing to interact with a large-scale drug prevention media campaign. Paper presentation on October 31, 2011. Authors: Holtz, K., Twombly, E., Becker, J.
- American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting, Washington, DC. Title: En Familia: An intergenerational approach to improving health literacy among and delivering health education to Latino families. Paper presentation on November 1, 2011. Authors: Palmer, L., Stringer, K., Holtz, K.
- American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting, Washington, DC. Title: The Cochlear Implant School Toolkit: Helping children with cochlear implants achieve academically and socially in mainstream schools. Poster presentation on November 1, 2011. Authors: Palmer, L., Eisenstein, J., Holtz, K.
- Annual American Evaluation Association (AEA) Conference, Anaheim, CA. Title: Research and evaluation as public health program development tools. Paper presentation on November 3, 2011. Authors: Palmer, L., Eisenstein, J., Holtz, K.
- Annual American Evaluation Association (AEA) Conference, Anaheim, CA. Title: Using research and evaluation as tools to design and implement culturally-appropriate interventions. Paper presentation on November 4, 2011. Authors: Palmer, L. Stringer, K., Holtz, K.
July 2011
KDHRC celebrates the official launch of the new Latino Health program area
July 1, 2011 marks the official launch of the Latino Health program area at KDHRC. The new program area seeks to understand and address the unique health risks of Latino families and communities, and explore optimal methods for community-based organizations to deliver health education to Latinos.
June 2011
Abstracts accepted to 2011 APHA conference in Washington, DC
KDHRC is pleased to announce that four abstracts were accepted for presentation at the 139th APHA Annual Meeting, to be held in Washington, DC, on October 29 through November 2, 2011. Abstracts were accepted for research from four KDHRC projects: CI School Toolkit, En Familia, Familias Fuertes, and the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. KDHRC researchers will travel to Washington, DC to present findings at the APHA conference.
May 2011
Manuscript published in Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education
A manuscript entitled "Resonant Messages to Prevent Prescription Drug Misuse by Teens," by KDHRC Principal Research Associate, Eric C. Twombly, and President, Kristen D. Holtz, and former KDHRC employee Christina B. Agnew, was published in the April 2011 issue of the Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education. The abstract of the paper is found below.
Prescription drug misuse is a major health problem, particularly among teens. A key step in curbing misuse is the development of effective prescription drug prevention messages. This paper explores the elements of prescription drug misuse prevention messages that resonate with teens using data from focus groups with seventh and eighth grade students. In contrast to some previous research, students reported that messages with positive alternatives and refusal skills had little resonance, but scare tactic data also suggest a substantial difference in message resonance between seventh and eighth grade students. Overall, the findings suggest the need to craft and target different types of messages for prescription drug misuse prevention to targeted teen audiences.
Manuscript accepted for publication in Journal of Applied Communication Research
A manuscript entitled "Using Communication Infrastructure Theory to Formulate a Strategy to Locate 'Hard-to-Reach' Research Participants" with authorship by KDHRC employee Kimberly Stringer, and others, was accepted for publication in the May 2011 issue of Journal of Applied Communication Research. The paper reports results from a project funded by the Partnership for Urban Health Research, at Georgia State University. The abstract of the paper is found below.
In health-communication research, participants who are disproportionately affected by health disparities are often ‘‘hard-to-reach,’’ making them difficult to identify for formative research. This study used communication infrastructure theory (CIT) to create a strategy for locating a specific subset of residents*those who use 911 for healthcare within a low-income Atlanta community. Findings suggest the need for strategies that involve employing both the communication channels that are part of the neighborhood storytelling network and the community’s discursive spaces, more specifically the communication hot spots and community comfort zones located within the community’s built environment.
March 2011
KDHRC president invited to participate in expert panel for Surgeon General's office
Kristen Holtz, President of KDHRC, was invited to participate in an expert panel on the prevention of prescription drug abuse among youth, hosted by the Office of the Surgeon General. The meeting will be held to evaluate the state of science as it pertains to the prevention of prescription drug abuse among youth. The goal of the meeting is to review the existing science on the topic and engage in a dialogue to guide the development of a Call to Action on Rx drug abuse issues by the Office of the Surgeon General.
Manuscript accepted for publication in Public Performance & Management Review
A manuscript entitled "Social service agencies and program change: implications for theory and policy," by Jennifer C. Auer, Eric C. Twombly, and Carol J. De Vita was accepted for publication in the March issue of Public Performance & Management Review, a publication that explains factors influencing the performance of public and nonprofit organizations and agencies. The abstract of the paper is provided below.
Although the implementation of social welfare policies in the United States are predicated on the ability of nonprofit managers to innovate, adapt, and respond to changing government and community service priorities, there is little empirical information on the number and types of social service providers that actually alter their programming over time. This exploratory paper begins to fill that information gap by using data from the National Center for Charitable Statistics and descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze the proportion, types and conditions under which nonprofits changed their programming between 1999 and 2001. The results show that programmatic shifts among social service agencies are uncommon, although they are more likely for family service providers and nonprofits with greater financial capacity.
February 2011
KDHRC awarded NIDA “Brain Power” subcontract
KDHRC was awarded as subcontract on a major National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) contract to develop materials for NIDA’s “Brain Power” science education curricula. These four curricula – targeting grade ranges K-1st, 2nd-3rd, 4th through 5th, and 6th through 9th, educate youth about the brain and body and how drugs change healthy functioning. Thousands of copies of these curricula have been distributed at no-cost to schools and teachers nationwide since their release in the early-2000s.
Under the subcontract, KDHRC will extend the reach and resonance of the print curricula by developing web-based games that will be available on the NIDA Goes to School website. These games will cover key learning objectives of the curricula in an engaging and interactive manner. We anticipate that the games will be made available in Fall 2011.