An excessive heat warning has been issued this week, with temps climbing up to 113!!!! The AZ heat is a lot more than a nuisance – it's lethal. Our latest report on heat shows that about 1,400 Arizonans get a heat related illness so serious they end up in a hospital emergency room – hundreds [...]
AZ had the biggest % decrease in teen smoking rates in the country according to the new CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey this week. Smoking rates among AZ teens dropped 12% in the last couple of years- while rates generally stayed flat across the country. That's 11,000 fewer teen tobacco users between 2009 and 2011. About half of the teenagers in AZ [...]
I'm excited to announce that we have 32 teams signed up for the ADHS Worksite Wellness Stair Climb Challenge. Stair climbing and other physical activities have so many health benefits including decreasing your risk of developing a chronic disease, improving your mental health and mood, and it increases your chances of living longer. So, Get Your Climb On!
Strategic Effectiveness is defined by three essential components: Formulate a Plan, Implement the Plan, and Review and Adjust. Many times we do the first two and forget to come back to the third most important step needed for true progress to occur. To “review and adjust,” our senior leadership met in mid-April to do an annual [...]
Many of you have heard how I’d like to see the food stamp program (now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP) hard-wire better nutrition into the program by beginning to include nutritious food inventory criteria for SNAP vendors. To help make the case, we contracted with the ASU School of Nutrition & Health [...]
The Secretario de Salud Publica & the ADHS jointly received the Arizona Mexico Commission’s Paul Fannin award for our public health collaborations last Friday night. This is a top award for the Commission- with the award going to “… an organization that has demonstrated acts of goodwill and support toward the development of the Arizona-Sonora relationship.” It’s named after the [...]
As I mentioned before, one of the great things about this country is the ability to get involved in your government to make things happen. Well, today was another important step for the midwife group as they fulfilled an important part of the process outlined in a bill that was successfully run through the legislative [...]
The standards set by ADHS for the medical marijuana dispensaries made the big time today. The New York Times carried a story today that highlights the limited number of dispensaries in the state; the need for dispensaries to carefully secure, store and track the marijuana; and the medical director functions. The reporter interviewed dispensary applicants, some [...]
Last year our Agency pulled through big-time during our bottled water drive- collecting and donating 68,000 bottles of water for thirsty homeless folks. This month we’re having our 2nd annual Water Challenge with a goal of 75,000 bottles by the end of June. If we meet the goal of 75,000 bottles collected in June, we’ll all get [...]
It’s time for our Bureau of Women’s & Children’s Health and our Office of Children with Special Health Care Needs to complete their annual application for the Maternal and Child Health Title V Block Grant. When you hear “Title V”, people are talking about our maternal and child health prevention programs. These programs work with [...]
