Hello everyone,
I’m Miriam Chickering, CEO of NextGenU.org, and we are delighted to support the current Tobacco discussion. NextGenU.org’s mission is to democratize education globally and improve the health and well-being of humanity and the planet. This HIFA discussion is especially important to us because tobacco addiction has a massive negative impact on humanity and the planet. We know there are still gaps to be filled in our understanding of the harms of tobacco and how these can be addressed. We hope that HIFA.org forum members can point us to where the greatest needs exist when it comes to education in addiction and mental health so that we can continue to create additional resources to help health professionals treat patients suffering from mental health and substance use disorders. In addition to the five questions that are framing this discussion, we would like to ask HIFA.org members:
Q6. What are the gaps in education for health professionals related to mental health and substance use disorder, and where are those gaps most pronounced?
Q7. Are gaps in training related to medical, nursing, or other health professional training?
We are delighted to have tobacco control experts such as Eduardo Bianco (Uruguay) and Chris Bostic (USA), who have already shared much of their expertise in the past two weeks. We would also like to see contributions from frontline health workers, patient representatives, policymakers, and, indeed, all stakeholders. Please continue to send your messages to hifa@hifaforums.org and invite your colleagues to join us through our landing page:
https://www.hifa.org/news/hifa-launches-deep-dive-discussion-tobacco-27-...
About NextGenU: NextGenU.org is the online platform for the Ulrich and Ruth Frank Foundation for International Health. Part of our work focuses on training health professionals in mental health and addiction medicine through our project, Addiction Training for Health Professionals. We sponsor fellows interested in policy, research, and clinical practice related to addiction medicine. We also offer free training for addiction professionals through 21 courses approved for continuing medical education by NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals, so physicians, nurses, social workers, and counselors can receive free training in various areas of addiction medicine and mental health.
Best wishes, Miriam
Miriam Chickering RN, BSN, NE-BC
*Chief Executive Officer*
*Telephone: 763 954 0314*
*Website:* NextGenU.org <https://nextgenu.org/>
<http://www.nextgenu.org> <https://athp.nextgenu.org/>
<https://phu.nextgenu.org/>
<https://humanitarianu.org/>
HIFA profile: Miriam Chickering, RN, is the CEO of NextGenU.org and the Founder of Nurses International. Mrs. Chickering specializes in globally scaled solutions for healthcare and education. The programs she directs have and continue to make a lasting impact worldwide: NextGenU.org provides learning materials through 300 universities, Nurses International creates critically needed learning materials for nurses in 147 countries, HumanitarianU.org has trained over 30,000 humanitarians globally, and Public Health U trains 140 Masters-Level Public Health students each year from 50 countries. Mrs. Chickering received the 2021 Humanitarian Service Award for Transformative Global Leadership in Democratizing Education from NHSD/Humanitarian Pakistan and was a co-recipient of a 2021 award for Translating Science into Nursing Education from Sigma Theta Tau.
