PHMC’s biennial Household Health Survey is being fielded through the month of September. Why? We need more data from Southeastern Pennsylvania residents in order to supply hospitals, government agencies, universities, managed care organizations and others with useful information to plan, implement and evaluate community health initiatives.

Please respond to the survey when you are contacted by phone…a few minutes of your time is worth improved health services for years to come.

For more information, please visit www.chdbdata.org.

Join PHMC for PRO-ACT’s Recovery Walks! on September 25. The 1.5 mile course starts at Penn’s Landing and runs through historic Philadelphia. Each year, PHMC sponsors Recovery Walks! to further advocate our work in the community with people at every stage of recovery and to show support for the people who work them everyday.  Walk proceeds benefit community activities, organizations, education and advocacy efforts, as well as individual support for recovery prevention and treatment.

Recovery Walks!, the largest walk for recovery from alcohol and other drug addictions in Southeastern Pennsylvania, is the 2010 national site for Faces and Voices of Recovery’s Rally for Recovery marches, walks, town-hall meetings, picnics and other events on September 25. September is also National Recovery Month.

To register as a member of PHMC’s Recovery Walks! team, email Katherine Harvey or call 267-765-2379.

You can purchase a special PHMC walk t-shirt for only $8 If you register and pay for the t-shirt by September 2.

Visit www.recoverywalks.org to register as an individual walker or for more information. You may also register for PHMC’s team online.

Can’t participate in PRO-ACT Recovery Walk?

Then consider honoring the PHMC team with an online donation to PHMC’s Behavioral Health Services, Forensic Services or Health Promotion Services. You may designate your gift to all or one of these programs.

The Centers for Disease Control named PHMC as one of five agencies in Pennsylvania to receive funding for HIV-prevention programs. The grant funds two new PHMC programs that target ethnic and racial minorities. Akil Pierre, project coordinator of PHMC’s PALMS (Preventing AIDS Through Live Movement and Sound) Project, spearheads the projects. The first program, called Sisters Informing Healing Living Empowering (SIHLE) uses group sessions to discuss HIV prevention with African-American teen girls, while also highlighting cultural and gender pride. SIHLE provides participants with free testing, referrals and counseling services. The second program, called Young Sisters in Charge, reaches out to young African-American women and provides counseling and testing twice a month. Both programs are scheduled to begin winter 2011.

The Mazzoni Center, a health center for Philadelphia’s LGBT population, also received funding for Get Real—a social marketing, community-level intervention program it manages in collaboration with PHMC. Get Real uses the narratives of local men, ages 15-29 to spark discussions about HIV prevention. The program, which aims to reach black and white men, facilitates frank discussions about safe sex, HIV/AIDS risk and general health and well-being of participants. Get Real targets substance-using men who have sex with men through media communications and interpersonal networking. The program seeks to change risk behavior and social norms that contribute to HIV risk.

To learn more about the grant, read the full story as featured in The Philadelphia Gay News.

On Saturday July 24, thousands of local area residents gathered for the 2010 Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church Fit for Eternity Walk/Run. Now in its fifth year, the annual event commemorates the church expansion and raises awareness of a local community health issue. This year’s walk/run proceeds benefitted two Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) community health centers: Mary Howard Health Center, which provides comprehensive, continuous health care services to Philadelphia’s homeless population, and Rising Sun Health Center, which provides high-quality, affordable health care to uninsured and underinsured Philadelphians.

Each health center received $7,500 towards expanding and improving patient services. Many PHMC employees participated in the race including Jeanne Ciocca, executive director Resources for Children’s Health, who walked away with a first place medal in her division. In addition, runners from Students Run Philly Style, a National Nursing Centers Consortium program, received top medals in various divisions. “We are thrilled and thankful that Enon selected Mary Howard and Rising Sun Health Centers as this year’s Fit for Eternity Run/Walk beneficiaries,” said Elaine Fox, vice-president of specialized health services at PHMC. “The ever-increasing demand for care, the need for medications and lab work for uninsured patients and additional services, such as optometric care, make the gift from Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church a true blessing to our staff and patients.”