Issue 12 Fall 2022

Calling all high school artists!

The Snohomish Health District is holding an art contest to select cover art for the 2022 Community Health Assessment report. The winner of the contest will be selected by Snohomish Health District staff, will be featured on the cover of the final report, and will receive a $200 stipend.

The prompt for the art piece is "What does a healthy community look like to you?"

This contest is open to any high school age student who lives and/or goes to school in Snohomish County. They may choose the medium they use to create their art, but it must be submitted in digital format with a file size no smaller than 1,000 KB (1 MB). Paintings, drawings, or three-dimensional art may be submitted as a scan or high-resolution photograph of the art piece.

A graphic designer at the Health District will format the final cover featuring the winning art piece. The cover of the report is 8.5x11 in portrait layout (not landscape). The winning piece must fit and display well on that cover space.

The deadline for submissions is November 10, 2022. The winner will be notified by mid-December.

To submit your art piece, fill out the form available at www.snohd.org/cha2022.

The contest information flyer is available online to print and post, as well.

988 is here!

988 offers 24/7 access to trained crisis counselors who can help people experiencing mental health-related distress. That could be:

Thoughts of suicide
Mental health or substance use crisis, or
Any other kind of emotional distress

People can call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org for themselves or if they are worried about a loved one who may need crisis support. You do not need to be the person in crisis to access free and confidential services. Reach out to 988 if you need advice or help on how to assist someone else who may be experiencing a mental health crisis.

988 serves as a universal entry point so that no matter where you live in the United States, you can reach a trained crisis counselor who can help. Visit SAMHSA to learn more about 988 and how to access additional services in the community.

Interested in having a conversation about solutions to your school's traffic congestion?

Back to school means back to arrival and dismissal traffic congestion! Are you interested in making it easier for your students to walk, bike, roll, or take the bus to school? We can help with that! Whether you already have a “Safe Routes to School” program well established or are new to the concept, Healthy Communities Specialist Keri Moore can meet with you and your leadership to talk about ways to help. Keri is especially interested in establishing more “off-site parking” schools in our county and would love to talk with you about what that looks like. She can be reached at kmoore@snohd.org or 425-339-8632.

Narcan resources for schools

For school staff looking for Narcan, there are two new sources available. Snohomish Health District received funding to provide one free unit (2 doses) of Narcan to each middle and high school in Snohomish County. To make a request, please fill out the form linked here. If the unit of Narcan is administered, please reach back out to opioids@snohd.org to report the use and request a replacement.

Emergent BioSolutions is also giving away two units of nasal spray Narcan to elementary, middle, and high schools every three years through their partner organization Direct Relief. All requests for Narcan and questions about the process should be directed to emergentgives@ebsi.com. Since the program is still in transition, it may take some time to receive a response and supplies are limited. All schools making this request should have the statewide standing order on hand:
https://doh.wa.gov/sites/default/files/legacy/Documents/Pubs//150-127-StatewideStandingOrderToDispenseNaloxone.pdf?uid=625811017fed4

If schools are interested in purchasing additional kits beyond those available through Snohomish Health District and Direct Relief, they are available at the public interest price of $47.50 per unit (two doses). Contact Miae Aramori at aramorim@ebsi.com or call 206-612-8646 to initiate a purchase.

When deciding where the Narcan kits should be kept, consider possible locations that remain accessible after the end of the school day and during extracurricular activities. Just this month, a colleague was at their child’s school football practice when someone overdosed in the parking lot, and the Narcan on school grounds was locked in the nurse’s office.

To read OSPI guidance on opioid-related policy guideline and training in school settings, download their training guide here. For any questions relating to this guidance, please reach out to Annie Hetzel, the Health Services Program Consultant with OSPI at annie.hetzel@k12.wa.us. For any opioid or drug related training or educational materials requests, please reach out to opioids@snohd.org.

Current COVID guidance for schools

The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) has released its updated (August 2022) COVID-19 guidance for K-12 schools and child care. The guidance takes lessons learned from the first two and a half years of the pandemic, and outlines both required and recommended measures for the 2022-23 school year to help reduce COVID-19 transmission in school and child care settings. Schools, child care providers, and families can expect limited changes focused on clarifying and simplifying the guidance.

Clarified requirements and recommendations in this school year’s guidance include:

Students, children, and staff who test positive for COVID-19 are required to stay at home and isolate for 5 days. Repeating initial COVID-19 testing will not affect this requirement.
Students, children, and staff returning from 5 days of isolation should wear a well-fitted mask from days 6 to 10. Those returning are encouraged to test before doing so.
Schools and child care providers are no longer required to directly notify high risk individuals of exposure but must continue to have a process in place to inform students, staff, and families of cases and outbreaks.
Schools and child care providers continue to be required to report outbreaks (3 or more cases within a specified core group) to local health jurisdictions (LHJ) and to have a system in place to respond.

DOH continues to encourage schools and child care providers to consider their local context when selecting any additional measures to help reduce COVID-19 transmission in schools and child care settings and to coordinate with their local health department, particularly during times of outbreak. Schools, child care providers, and the local health department may choose to continue to implement more protective measures, depending upon their context, to help ensure students, children, and staff can continue in-person activities safely.

The Snohomish Health District has a convenient toolkit as a resource for schools. You can access it here along with other COVID information for Snohomish County schools.