Announcements

The state Department of Health has released its strategic plan for 2022 and beyond: DOH Transformational Plan: A Vision for Health in Washington State. This plan is a call to action for DOH as we emerge from our intense focus on COVID-19 and look ahead to reimagine public health, reinvigorate our work, and not lose sight of the lessons learned during this pandemic.
Early and consistent developmental screening helps ensure children’s growth is on the right track. It’s particularly important in light of the pandemic’s potential impact on normal development. Strong Start Universal Developmental Screening System has been created to help increase child screening rates and access to supportive services.
The Washington State Public Health Association (WSPHA) has released this year’s annual conference agenda and extended the deadline for early bird registration rates to August 31.
The Washington Tracking Network’s Community Report tool makes it easier to understand the health of your community. The new tool lets you access all the available health measures for a given area, rather than having to select your region on each health measure. This will mean less time wading through data, making it easier to select all the measures you want to know about.
The National Association of Chronic Disease Directors has published its annual collection
DOH’s Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccine Provider Toolkit is updated regularly with new documents and materials all in one publication. Bookmark this link Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccine - Provider Toolkit and check back often.
The Washington Tracking Network (WTN) provides health and environmental data through a set of five tools. Recently WTN reorganized its web pages so that information is easier to find, and now includes a video orientation. The seven-minute video takes you through each tool and shows what kinds of data and visualizations are available in each tool. It also shows how to navigate the features of the tool so you can find the information you are looking for.
The Department of Health encourages individuals and communities who have experienced health inequities or racism in the health care system to join us for one of our upcoming Health Equity Listening Sessions. Advocacy groups and health care professional associations are also invited. We’d like your help in sharing these sessions with your communities.
COVID-19 vaccine information is now available online in 40 languages. Access to information will help community members get accurate, timely, and culturally and linguistically appropriate information about the COVID-19 vaccines.
The Washington State Department of Health is recruiting young people living in Washington for a Youth Advisory Council. Members of the council will be asked to serve for about a year, and will help the Adolescent and Young Adult Health Unit make programming decisions.