Improving community public health and well-being in South Texas

The Texas A&M School of Public Health was selected as one of two finalists for the Harrison C. Spencer Award for Outstanding Community Service. The distinguished award is presented annually by the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) to an ASPPH-member school or program that has demonstrated major institutional commitment to engage with their community to improve public health and well-being.

Texas A&M was selected for the School of Public Health’s work in Texas A&M Healthy South Texas, a pilot program of The Texas A&M University System’s Healthy Texas initiative, to improve health outcomes for people living in the southernmost region of the state.

Healthy South Texas combines the clinical and public health expertise of the Texas A&M University Health Science Center with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service’s unmatched statewide network of extension agents to engage families and individuals in research-based preventive health strategies. Faculty, staff and students from the School of Public Health have been at the forefront of this initiative, from conceptualization and implementation to dissemination and sustainability.

Since it launched in 2015, the program has made more than 1.2 million educational contacts and saved millions in health care costs for those who received chronic disease self-management education, medication assistance and otherwise unaffordable health care services.

The school was recognized at the ASPPH Awards Luncheon Thursday, March 21, in Arlington, Virginia, along with award recipient, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.