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August 2017 News for Healthy Communities

DEH Receives $2.8 Million for Lead Abatement

It's been nearly four decades since lead-based paint was banned in the U.S., but the deteriorating paint still poses serious health risks to children across the country. Thanks to a $2.8 million HUD grant, however, the Denver Department of Environmental Health will soon provide 130 low- and moderate-income homes with much-needed lead-based paint abatement services. 



Nationally, HUD’s $127 million Lead Based Paint Hazard Control grant programs aim to reduce the number of children with elevated blood lead levels and protect nearly 7,600 families living in homes with lead and other home health and safety hazards. Locally, the funding will extend over the next three years across eight carefully selected zip codes and 18 neighborhoods. In addition to lead abatement services, the grant also includes $400,000 to address 28 other healthy homes hazards.
 
Qualifying for the grant requires that homes fit some specific criteria. First, a home must have been constructed prior to 1970, when lead-based paint was most commonly used. The lead-based paint on the home’s interior or exterior must be chipping, peeling or otherwise deteriorating, and the home must also house a child under the age of six at least 20 hours per week. Finally, the residents must earn at or below 80 percent of the area’s median income. Qualifying homes will receive a full lead-risk assessment, an abatement plan and abatement services, which can average $8,500 per home.
 
DEH Grant Administrator and Fiscal Officer Terra Haseman Swazer and Brendan Doyle, an analyst II with DEH’s environmental quality section, described the grant process as quite competitive and noted that DEH was one of only 48 state and local government agencies across the country to receive funding. DEH is also the only Colorado agency awarded in this grant cycle.
 
The Denver Office of Economic Development was previously awarded $2.2 million under the same grant program in 2010 and provided lead-based paint mitigation and abatement services to 131 families from 2011 to 2014. However, as a great example of inter-departmental collaboration, this most recent round of funding will be administered by DEH with the support of the Office of Economic Development (OED). Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA) will serve as the program's general contractor, and the OED will provide at least $275,000 in matching funds. 
Pet Summer Safety Tips

Over the summer months, one in five pets will get lost. Without identification, 80 percent won't return home. Losing your dog or cat is panic-inducing and stressful, but also avoidable. At Denver Animal Protection (DAP), our priority is keeping pets safe. While keeping pets indoors or leashed outdoors is the best line of defense, here are a few extra tips to help keep your best furry friend safe and sound this summer.
  • Update your pet’s ID. If your pet does get lost, having up-to-date microchip and collar information can help ensure a neighbor or animal shelter can get in touch with you if they find your pet. Denver Animal Shelter (DAS) has a tag machine where you can customize your pet’s ID with your name and phone number. There are also GPS pet trackers collars; however, collars can slip off when a pet is lost, so the best protection is microchipping your pet. Microchipping is available at DAS for $25.
  • Create a comfortable, safe retreat. Your pet’s crate or bed can be the perfect soothing space to flee to when they’re feeling anxious or afraid. You can also provide additional comforts such as a favorite toy or use treats to help keep your pet calm.
  • Know your local animal shelters. For anybody who might come across a lost dog, approach the animal cautiously and bring it to your local animal shelter. Colorado law requires shelters to keep lost pets for five days. You can view Denver Animal Shelter lost pets on our website. To find a list of area animal shelters, visit the Metro Denver Animal Welfare Alliance website.
Whether your pet visits your neighbor across the street or ventures across town, protecting your pets with these proactive measures will greatly increase their chances of being reunited with your family. 
Denver Aims High to Keep Traffic Deaths Low
 
In his 2017 State of the City address, Mayor Hancock set traffic-stopping goal: to eliminate all traffic-related deaths and serious injuries on Denver’s roadways by 2030. This plan, Vision Zero, was built on the city’s belief that fatal crashes are not inevitable —they are unacceptable and preventable, provided communities take the necessary actions.

“Denver’s streets are not as safe as they should be,” Mayor Hancock noted in the Vision Zero Action Plan.
“Since the beginning of 2016, 90 people have died while walking, bicycling, taking transit, riding a motorcycle or driving in the city. These are numbers that have only increased over the past several years and, in large part, it is our seniors, children and underserved communities that are being victimized.”
 
While it will take a number of coordinated efforts to reach the ambitious goal by 2030, the plan ultimately seeks to reduce fatal crashes by enhancing city collaboration, building safer streets, creating safe speeds, promoting a culture of traffic safety, and improving data and transparency.
 
In another example of interdepartmental and community collaboration, the City of Denver worked with a number of local agencies to bring Vision Zero to life. Partners included the Department of Transportation, Denver Health & Hospital Authority, Denver Regional Council of Governments, RTD, Denver Public Schools, Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment, AAA Colorado and pedestrian and bicycle advisory committees. Community members are invited to provide their feedback by August 11 via the Vision Zero web page.
 
Vision Zero strategies also constitutes a key component of the Mayor’s recently announced Mobility Action Plan, which will accelerate the projects, policies and programs to move more people, more efficiently and more safely. 

DEH to Mark International Overdose Awareness Day

In June, The New York Times published a sobering statistic: Between 59,000 and 65,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2016 alone. Coloradans constituted 869 of those deaths, according to the Colorado Center for Health and Environmental Data.

DEH’s Community Health team is actively working to understand the experience of opiate addiction and overdose in an effort to prevent related deaths.

Since joining DEH in May, Substance Use Resource Coordinator Marion Rorke has spent hours interviewing opioid users, and these interviews are helping DEH better understand how Coloradans use opioids, their overdose risk factors and their experiences of accessing treatment. Rorke explained that one common misconception is that intravenous heroin use is the first step in an individual’s drug use, and that only homeless individuals are at risk for injecting.

“It really can be a lot of people,” Rorke explained. “This is your brother, your sister, your grandmother. Some people I have spoken with had accidents and didn’t start using pain pills until they were in their 40s. People who never thought, ‘that could be me.’”

Rorke added that dangerous drug/drug and drug/alcohol interactions are also playing a significant role in overdose deaths, and that even attempts to ween users off prescribed opioids can sometimes lead them to heroin use.

To help better inform city employees in particular, the Community Health team is hosting an event on August 31 to coincide with International Overdose Awareness Day. All city employees and community members are welcome to stop by the Webb Building from 10 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. to mark the event, which aims to raise awareness of overdose and reduce the stigma of drug-related death.

The event will feature booths and information from partner organizations including the Mental Health Center of Denver, Rocky Mountain Poison Control, the Office of the Medical Examiner, Office of Behavioral Health Strategies and representatives from the Denver Public Library, as well as information on harm reduction provided by our two local syringe access programs, HRAC and DCAP. DEH will be on hand to give away educational resources and to share preliminary data gleaned from on-going opioid user interviews, and drug take-back information will be provided for those who want to safely dispose of prescription medications.

Dr. Robert J. Valuck — a professor in clinical pharmacy, epidemiology and family medicine departments at the University of Colorado Schools of Pharmacy, Public Health and Medicine — will also speak at the event on behalf of the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention. Dr. Valuck directs the consortium, which was created in 2013 to establish a coordinated, statewide response to this major public health problem. The mission of the consortium is to reduce the abuse and misuse of prescription drugs in the State of Colorado through improvements in education, public outreach, research, safe disposal and treatment. Dr. Valuck will speak about the consortium (and coordinated efforts with DEH in creating a collective impact model) and lead a Q&A beginning at noon in the Webb Building Atrium.

For more information, contact Marion Rorke at  Marion.Rorke@denvergov.org or (720) 865-5453. 
Support the Denver Animal Shelter! Visit Pizzeria Locale at 3484 W. 32nd Ave on Aug. 9 from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Mention the fundraiser and 50 percent of your purchase will be donated to the shelter.
Join Denver Environmental Health for the second installment of the Health Equity in our City series on Aug. 16 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the McNichols Building, located at 144 W. Colfax Ave.
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