The American Academy of Pediatrics updated their car safety recommendations in the April issue of Pediatrics advising parents to keep their toddlers in rear-facing car seats until 2 (or until they reach the maximum height and weight for their seat for big kids). They also recommend that most children should be in a belt-positioning booster [...]
Life expectancy improved by more than 30 years in the US during the 20th Century. Advances in diagnosis and treatment of disease have played a role, but the real reason we’re living longer today has a lot more to do with public health interventions than advances in health care. Interventions like vaccines, motor vehicle safety, [...]
The Legislature completed the Regular Session a couple of weeks ago, and Monday marked the deadline for the Governor to make her decision about each bill that came to her desk: sign the bill into law, veto the bill, or do nothing and let the bill become law. Last week I summarized the new laws [...]
ADHS and ADOA will be working together over the next several months to get Arizona State Government to become the 1st government entity in the nation to meet the American Cancer Society’s CEO Cancer Gold Standard Program criteria. Our objective is to set the standard for excellence in the prevention, early detection, and effective management of cancer [...]
Title V of the Social Security Act is the longest-standing public health legislation in America. Over the past 75 years, the Title V Maternal & Child Health Block Grant has supported a number of efforts in Arizona which have contributed to improved immunization rates, declining infant mortality and more comprehensive services for children with special health care [...]
A new issue brief from the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) offers states suggestions on how to better coordinate and integrate home visitation programs to improve early childhood initiatives. Maximizing the Impact of State Early Childhood Home Visitation Programs examines how states can better integrate home visiting programs into an effective [...]
Our Fit and Fifty HealthCheck program encourages and provides resources for uninsured and underinsured folks to get screened for colorectal cancer. The program is funded by the CDC and a special tobacco tax. The program is available in Maricopa, Pima and Coconino and includes access to a fecal occult blood test and colonoscopy. To use [...]
Residents in our licensed Assisted Living facilities are supposed to have a “service plan” that identifies their care needs and provides information about how the facility intends to meet those needs. We’ve found that good service plans are crucial in providing quality service, but that facilities sometimes struggle to develop effective plans for all their [...]
The U.S. Attorney for Arizona wrote me a letter today about how the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act and our rules interface with federal law. As you know, Arizona voters passed the Act last November and ADHS created a program to clearly carry out the voters’ wishes. While we've done what we can to set the stage for a medical [...]
Age and risk factor appropriate screening for breast and cervical cancer is a key public health intervention that saves countless lives every year, because early detection and treatment for these cancers result in substantially better outcomes. That’s where Arizona’s Well Woman HealthCheck Program comes in… Our Well Woman HealthCheck was established in 1993 as part [...]
