December 12th, 2017
It’s supposed to be a harbor, a haven—it’s home. But some home environments can cause serious health problems. Moisture and molds can inflame asthma and allergies. Broken steps can cause a fall.A leaky oil furnace can produce deadly carbon monoxide. Cockroaches and mice can produce airborne allergens that trigger asthma episodes.A variety of health professionals and inspectors may enter a home for one reason or other, but few are equipped to spot all the possible ways a house can hurt its occupants. Now a new government partnership aims to change that. To holistically address all the aspects of housing that affect health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have partnered to sponsor the National Healthy Homes Training Center and Network. Operated by the nonprofit National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH), the network aims ultimately to change how city and state governments conduct public health activities related to housing. The NCHH provides training tools and curricula, while the actual training is carried out by a nationwide network of universities including Eastern Kentucky University, The Johns Hopkins University, the University of Cincinnati, and the University of Washington. Rebecca Morley, executive director of the NCHH, hopes to expand the network soon to include other sites, such as Boston University and Boston Medical Center. “We made a conscious decision to use the already-trusted resources in the community,” Morley says. “By building on the existing infrastructure, we think we stand a lot better chance of bringing about change.” Morley adds, “The role of the National Center for Healthy Housing is to anchor this network by providing training curricula and tools and serving as a repository for all the information about healthy housing that the partners might need to carry out the training and to promote healthy housing more broadly in their communities.” Part of that repository will be an electronic database of research information, assessment tools, and treatment protocols that will be available online in summer 2005. So far the network has trained 25 workers through a 2004 pilot training session. This year, the goal is to expand training to at least four other training sites. By September 2006, the training will have reached nearly 600 public health nurses, home inspectors, weatherization inspectors, environmental health specialists, and others, Morley says.